


Our Ghosts

by reylochriso (chrisovens)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - House of Leaves Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Based On Buzzfeed Unsolved, Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, F/M, Haunted Houses, Horror, Inspired by The Haunting of Hill House, Mystery, Romance, Scary, Sharing a Bed, Smut, Spooky, Supernatural Elements, Witchcraft, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2020-06-30 05:47:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 45,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19846861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrisovens/pseuds/reylochriso
Summary: Rey is a new-hire camera operator for this season of Investigations Unsolved: Paranormal and for the third season finale, the crew will be investigating and staying in the haunted Snoke House for three nights, during which time she will share a room with one of the show's hosts, snarky skeptic: Ben Solo.What dark secrets lie waiting to uncovered in the ancient walls of the House?Inspired by: Buzzfeed Unsolved, The Haunting of Hill House, and The House of Leaves (by Mark Z. Danielewski).





	1. Arrival

And there it stood, in all its majesty: the Snoke House. Huge and ancient. Beautiful, yet haunting. The House imposed itself on the lonely hill, bathed in moonlight; the grounds surrounded and encased by tangled, crowded forestry. The aged maroon bricks that made up the House were stacked with unsettling exactness, framed on top by the dark, tiled roof that angled sharply in its centre. Three chimneys stuck out of the roof, and other areas of the House jutted out from the central body like squared tumours.

Rey Johnson, petite and brunette, found her chestnut eyes drawn to the windows; two large rectangular frames on the bottom level; one smaller, circular frame on the top level; several other square windows dotted around for other rooms. The windows seemed to stare back. Rey reassured herself that the feeling was more than likely her sensing the caretaker, Luke Hamill, who was waiting for the crew inside, but already the House had made an impression on her; its very presence felt tangible and threatening.

Surrounded by forestry, where breath should be full and deep, her throat felt tight.

She held the camera steady, standing in front of co-hosts Ben and Dom, them looking past her to the House. The other camera operator, Poe Dameron, debonair and olive-skinned, wearing a bulky, black backpack, stood behind the boys, framing both them and the House in one shot.

The ginger-haired, lanky one, Domhnall Hux, spoke first in his typically nasal tone, “Well, there it is: the Snoke House.”

Ben Solo, raven-haired and both taller and larger (all muscle) than Dom, looked at the ginger with a wry smirk and spoke with dry sarcasm to match, in his chocolatey voice, “The demon House?”

Dom, nervously, “Well, well. Witch House. Slash murder House.”

“Sounds potentially _very_ haunted. If one were to believe such things.”

“I am certainly not looking forward to going in there.”

Ben, admiring the House’s form, “It’s very imposing, isn’t it?”

Dom looked to Ben, “Shall we?”

Ben gestured ahead to the house, “Go right ahead.”

“Oh, I am _not_ going first!”

Poe, lowering his camera, “Okay, great job. That’s a cut on intro, Rey keep recording in the House in case we get anything.”

Rey nodded, “Yep.”

Ben chuckled, looking at Dom. “You really don’t want to go in there.”

“I really don’t!”

Rey added playfully in her charming British accent, “Don’t worry Dom, I’m with you. This place gives me the creeps.”

Ben jabbed, “You guys sound like characters from Scooby-Doo.”

Rey and Dom laughed.

Rey was a new hire for this season of _Investigations Unsolved: Paranormal_ , but the small crew of entirely-too-charismatic men had made her feel quickly at ease enough to swap banter with. This was especially reassuring, because if she didn’t feel so immediately comfortable with the three boys, there would be next to no relief from the haunting experiences she had to endure being a camera-operator on such a show.

On many occasions during filming, Rey would catch a shadow moving in the corner of her eye, only to turn and see nothing there. Or walk through a cold spot, noticeably colder than the rest of the room, sending a shiver down her spine that made the hairs on her neck stand on-edge. However, this episode was sure to be far worse than any other, for two reasons. One, this house wasn’t just the site of one potentially haunting tragedy, but three; one of which allegedly involving actual witchcraft. Two, for the third season finale of _Investigations Unsolved: Paranormal_ , the crew would be staying in the Snoke House for three nights.

Oh wait, three reasons. She was to be sharing a room with the painfully attractive Ben Solo for the three nights.

Ben knocked on the door of the House, it opened, revealing a short man of about 60 with greying brown hair and beard to match. He spoke with a deep but scratchy voice, “Hello, you must be the _Investigations Unsolved_ crew. I must say, I was expecting more of you!”

Ben smiled and spoke for the group, “We like to keep the crew small. I’m Ben, this is Dom, Poe, and Rey.”

“Excellent, excellent. Well, I’m Luke. Please, come inside. Let me give you a tour of the place before I leave you in it.”

Stepping inside the Snoke House, Rey first noticed the huge staircase a few paces from her leading to the second storey above them. She hadn't been in many houses with a second storey, growing up in the foster care system. Some might consider a second storey a luxury, but Rey was always put on-edge by them. All that extra space. All those extra corners with all those extra shadows. All those extra rooms in which something could hide and wait for her.

Luke pointed upwards with both hands, they all looked up to see a gorgeous chandelier. It reminded Rey of her favourite film, which thankfully she had saved on her laptop as a comfort for the sure-to-be nightmare-filled nights.

“Beautiful, huh?” the short man said.

Ben murmured, “It's gorgeous.” Solo seemed genuinely entranced by the fixture.

Luke gestured to the room to the right of the staircase, “This is the living room.” There was an uncomfortable-looking maroon, leather couch; two armchairs, and a large wood fireplace. Above the fireplace was an oil painting of girl in a red cape, small in the frame and skipping through a lush, country-side landscape. The painting was framed in an illustrious golden frame, and on the dark, wooden floor lay a bear-skin rug. “Some people say they feel cold spots in the room, even when the fire’s lit.” Never mind cold spots, Rey hadn’t felt warmth since they’d entered the grounds of the House.

To the right of the fireplace was a thin, light-green wooden door. “That door there leads down to the wine cellar, I'll show you in there a bit later.” The seaweed-green curtains on the rectangular window were drawn shut, and the inside of the house was lit with amber wall-mounted lights that had intricate, black iron casing. The wallpapers were a marbled black and green pattern that made Rey think of a witch's cauldron, bubbling with some unholy liquid.

To the left of the stair-case was a large dining room with a long, wooden table that was set with a rich green tablecloth. There was another fireplace in the dining room, too. Above this one was an oil painting of a forest's edge, with a frame like the other painting. Noticing Rey’s interest in the painting, the short man interjected, “Ah, now that painting is interesting. Some people claim to see a black wolf, watching from behind a tree.”

Luke stepped into the dining room; the crew followed him in as they gathered around the painting.

Dom looked at Luke inquisitively and asked, “Was it Elizabeth who painted these?”

“Very good! You’ve done your homework. Yes, all the paintings you’ll see here were painted by the lady of the house, Elizabeth Snoke in her studio, which I’ll show you upstairs.”

Luke showed them through the kitchen, which was unsurprisingly luxurious, before leading them up the creaking stairs. Rey counted the stairs carefully, attempting to calm herself as they ascended to the second storey she dreaded so heavily.

There were thirty-seven steps.

At the top of the staircase, the crew was presented with a long hallway, which more green doors interrupted every few paces. There was also a balcony around the second storey, so one was able to walk from the staircase to the circular window that overlooked the grounds. Luke pointed to the window, “Whenever you’re outside the House, have a look at that window. We have lots of people saying they can see a figure looking out at them. Sometimes more than one figure.”

In each room, Luke recounted stories of people on ghost tours who’d had an encounter in the rooms. In total, just upstairs the crew was shown through the main bedroom, two other bedrooms (where the crew would be sleeping), one bathroom, a painting studio, a study, and a billiards room – which, in particular, had Ben interested. Each room had stories of people seeing shadowy figures, hearing footsteps, having their hair pulled, or feeling as though they were being choked, or being scratched.

After their tour upstairs, they made their way back down the thirty-seven steps and into the living room, to the green door at the right of the fireplace.

“Now, you're probably wondering why I saved the cellar for last. Well, I like to end tours where paranormal activity is strongest. Does everyone have a flashlight on their phone?”

The crew nodded, pulling out their phones pre-emptively. Luke pulled an aged key from the pocket of his khaki pants, placing it in the lock of the green door.

“Good. Everyone, turn them on,” they all did so as he opened the door, “whatever's down there likes to turn off the lights.”

Ben chuckled, Dom’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates, which thankfully Rey caught on camera.

Luke reached into the doorway, flicked on a light switch at the wall, revealing another short staircase down, this one looking a lot less stable and grand. He held the door open and gestured to Dom, “After you.”

Dom giggled nervously, staying put. Ben laughed at Dom's apprehension. Poe stepped forward, aiming his camera back and leading the crew down into the cellar. Poe was followed by Ben, then Dom, then Rey, then Luke, who closed the door loudly behind them. Dom yelled; Luke giggled gleefully. “I’m sorry, I'm sorry, I couldn't resist!” He said between chuckles.

The cellar was not very well lit. The globes seemed old, and the bulbs in them were struggling. Additionally, the low ceiling made for strange, dull acoustics and forced poor, large Ben to duck slightly. They were forced to squeeze into single file to all fit; the space was only slightly wider than the upstairs hallway, only its walls had busy shelves attached to them, housing at least a hundred bottles of wine before an abrupt wall ended the cellar.

“The Snoke House was built in 1912, so the Prohibition era was just around the corner, starting in 1920. Politicians who publicly supported the consumption of alcohol were seen as participants in debauchery. This, of course, was not helped when Governor Snoke took an axe to his wife on that fateful night. In Elizabeth's wardrobe, an unsent letter was found, addressed to her parents. The letter describes ‘growing concern' for her husband's wellbeing, apparently marked by an increase in his intake of wine, and a, quote, ‘stirring madness within him, that disturbs me greatly. At night, I awake to find myself alone in my bed, I hear him pacing about the house, talking aloud as if someone else were there’.”

Luke let his words hang and, in the silence, the lights in the cellar went out.

Dom, shaking, “Oh my god, oh my god.”

Ben let out a loud guffaw at Dom's panic, “Oh buddy, it's alright.”

Luke interjected, “So, I know you guys are here to do paranormal investigating type stuff; I just want to let you know that this room is out of bounds when I’m not here to supervise. Fear not: it’s not for supernatural danger reasons, it's for expensive old wine reasons. However, this means that if there's anything you want to do in this room, you can do it now while I'm in here with you.”

The crew all looked at each other with a small nod. Dom spoke, “Yeah, we might do a couple things in here now, if that's alright.”

“Of course, go right ahead.”

Poe took off the bulky backpack and laid it on the ground, kneeling down to unzip it. Inside, there was all of the equipment they needed for their investigations. Gadgets and gizmos that measured movement, sound, electromagnetic signals, temporal changes, and other signs that allegedly marked the presence of a spectre. He pulled out their most-used tool, the one they all hated: the spirit box.

The spirit box was, as Dom so eloquently put it, ‘fucking loud'. It emitted a shrieking, pulsing radio static noise as it scrambled through radio frequencies at a thousandth of a second. According to paranormal forums, the spirit box allowed ghosts to hijack the frequencies to communicate with the mortal plane. Ben thought that was ‘a bunch of bullshit', but it made for good content, so they basically had to keep doing it.

Poe handed the spirit box to Dom and started recording on his camera. “Okay, rolling on cellar spirit box.”

Dom looked at the camera and announced, “So, apparently this cellar is the most haunted room in the house, so we're going to conduct a spirit box session in here.” He looked at Ben, “You ready?”

“I fuckin' hate this thing.” he said with a smirk.

“Me too.” And with that, he turned the spirit box on. It came roaring to life with a harsh burst of static that aaaaahkkshshshshshshshshshshsh—

“Hello. My name is Dom, this large other man is Ben. Is there anything, or anyone here who would like to communicate with us?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshsh I shshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh can shshs

Shshshshsh talk shshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

The voice speaking through the static sounded female. She spoke gently, but abruptly. Too quickly to discern anything significantly identifying like accent or age. Dom looked at Ben, paralysed by fear. He looked back at the spirit box to speak to it, “Can you say your name?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Our names are Dom and Ben. Can you say our names back to us?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Is this Elizabeth?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Elizabeth Snoke?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Or maybe Padmè Christensen?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Thomasin Crane?”

Shshshshshshshshshshsh sheshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh listen shshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“We're listening, if there's something you want to say.”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“I’m gonna give you just ten more seconds, but then I'm going to turn this off, okay?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshs Geshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh Out oshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshsh House hshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Okay. Turning it off now.”

Shshshshshshsh.

Silence rang through the cellar. Luke grinned, “That thing's fucking loud.”

Once out of the cellar, Luke made his way to the front door and paused in the doorway, looking back at the crew. “Well, this is where I leave you for the night. Any final queries or concerns, before your night in the Snoke House?”

The crew looked at one another, all shaking their heads. Dom spoke for the crew, “No, I think you've pretty much told us everything.”

Luke smiled fondly. Rey could imagine him being a much-adored patron of a local pub, where everyone knew his name and his stories, where they would get him to tell ‘that one where they saw a dead girl' after a pint or two. “Okay. Well, I'll visit you in the morning, around 11, to make sure everyone's okay. Let me know if you see anything strange. You have my number in case of emergencies, don't you?”

Dom nodded, “Yeah, but let's hope we don't need it.” Followed by a nervous laugh that passed through the rest of the crew as well.

“Good, yes, let's hope. Oh and, one more thing. If uh... If any of you have any troubling thoughts, start behaving unlike yourself, feel overwhelmingly negative or stressed; do the safe thing and get yourself out of the House. Got it?”

The crew nodded. Luke smiled again, then opened the front door and stepped outside, closing it behind him. His final warning to them seemed unusually sharp and it stuck in Rey's mind like a splinter. The words had an uncomfortable edge to them, without outright saying it, he confirmed a growing fear in Rey that she'd been trying to ignore since she had heard the House’s history. It had compounded when she entered the grounds, and again when she set foot inside its walls, and again now with the thought of conducting an investigation of the House, followed swiftly by the idea of staying in one of its haunted rooms for three nights for whatever resided within to prey upon her… Dread filled Rey’s stomach. Her suspicion, her fear, rose within her and consumed her. It became a mantra of horror:

There’s something about this House that breeds madness.


	2. Communication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew conduct their investigation of the Snoke House, and Rey finds herself getting frustrated with the demeanor of her roommate.

The crew decided to only use the spirit box in the main bedroom, Elizabeth's studio, and the top of the staircase. Because, in Ben's words, ‘fuck using that obnoxious thing in every room of this House'.

They started in the living room because they were already there. Dom began with a short set up for the camera, “Ichabod liked to sit on this couch with the fire lit and drink his wine in the evening after a long day. Which, y'know, by the end he did a lot of.” The lanky ginger paused and looked around the living room aimlessly, before continuing shakily, “Ichabod, if you're in here with us, feel free to give us a sign.”

A dread-filled pause.

“Say something, move something.”

Ben interrupted, “Frankly you can just fuckin' kill me.”

“Jesus Christ, Ben.”

“Just tear my heart out. Just reach into my chest and pull out my heart.”

“Jesus!”

“What? He already killed his wife, surely he’s powerful enough to kill me. Otherwise he’s just scared of me, right?”

Rey heard a small scuff somewhere in the house.

Ben continued, getting louder, “Y’know what, Ichabod? This is my house now. This is the Solo house.”

Dom interrupted nervously, “Okay, Snoke, I’m not associated with him. Kill him, not me.”

“Wow, that’s pretty heartless coming from you.”

“Well— you said it too!”

“Yeah but you actually believe in ghosts, so you believe that he could actually kill me.”

“Okay, fair point, please don’t kill my co-worker. And friend.”

“Oh, well, thank you, that means a lot. But do still kill me, if you feel so inclined.”

The silence that followed Ben’s taunt was filled with incidental noises; wind howling outside, the wood of the House creaking in the wind, crickets chirping softly in the nearby woods. Rey listened to the silence so intently that every tiny noise made her heart flutter.

Ben’s voice broke the silence, he spoke softly and far too self-assured for Rey’s liking. “Guess there’s no one home.”

“You are… One cocky son of a bitch, Ben Solo.”

That he was. It was beginning to get on Rey’s extremely heightened nerves.

The dining room and kitchen were equally provocative, on Ben’s part, but also equally uneventful in terms of paranormal interaction, which Rey was thankful for between nauseating anxiety.

They climbed the stairs, filled with dread towards the spirit box session they had agreed to do once they reached the top. Rey counted out the thirty-seven steps as she climbed in a bid to keep her mind occupied, but it didn’t much help.

Dom turned on the spirit box—

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Hello, spirits of the Snoke House. Once again, I’m Dom, the large man is Ben.”

Ben smirked.

“If there’s anything you would like to say to us, anything you’d like us to know, you can use this to communicate with us.”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Can you say our names back to us?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Can you say your name?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Ben spoke, “Do you want to kill us?”

Shshshshshshshshs Help shshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshsh Hallwahshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Again, the voice was female and abrupt. Ben looked at Dom, puzzled, “Sorry ghost, what was that?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Dom, worried, “We’re gonna turn this thing off soon, if there’s anything else you need to say to us, please do so now.”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshs Beshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

ShshshshshshshshAfraihshshshshssraihshshshsh

ShshshshshshshshshshshshshsLone shshshshshs

Dom turned off the spirit box. Ben chuckled, “Gee, it got real active as you were about to turn it off.”

“Do you want me to turn it back on?”

“Fuck no.”

“Good. Me neither.”

The boys laughed. Rey smirked nervously.

The spirit box was useless in the rest of the investigation. In Elizabeth's studio, all they could interpret other than that awful, pulsing static fuzz was the words “Awake" and “Following". There were no voices to interpret when they turned it on in the main bedroom. Otherwise, the investigation continued the same pattern of Dom speaking to the ghosts and getting nothing in response, then Ben trying to provoke them into attacking or killing him, also to no response.

With the first investigation over, the crew decided to go into town for a quick bite before returning to the House to go to bed. They all climbed into Poe's sleek, black and orange sedan and made the 20-minute drive into the nearest town, Elmwood.

Rey, playfully to the rest of the crew, “Don't you reckon it just sounds haunted? Elmwood?”

Poe, from the driver's seat, “Oh, totally. Sounds like a town from a slasher movie from the 80s.”

Ben, from shotgun, “Or from a Stephen King book.”

Rey chuckled, “Oh, totally!”

Against her better judgment, Rey was still frustrated with Ben's cavalier demeanor towards provoking spirits. She had been at a sustained level of fear for an hour or more, and although the House's presence was to blame, he certainly hadn't helped.

She was worried that she'd snap at him while sharing a room over the three nights, over something small and petty. Just being in that House made her feel more on edge than she’d been in any other haunted place in her time on the show, and the further away from the House they got, the faster her heart rate reset to a normal pace.

Poe piped up again, “What do we feel like?”

Rey pulled out her phone and got up Trip Advisor, “Hold on, there's this Mexican diner I know has good reviews.”

“Everyone good with Mexican?”

Ben, “Sure.”

Dom, “Yeah, sounds good.”

Poe, “Great.”

Rey, “Okay, I'll pull up directions.”

They pulled into Old Maz's 24hr Taco Diner at half-past 11. It was about half full but mostly quiet. Latin music played quietly. The mingling smells of cumin, paprika, and BBQ meat filled the air. The crew was shown to an aged red leather booth by a young and bubbly waitress with orange hair and fair skin, which matched the orange apron she was wearing over a white shirt. “Hey guys, my name is Beebee, I'll be your server this evening.” She handed them some menus, continuing, “Can I get you any drinks to start?”

Rey spoke quickly, “We'll get a jug of the sour watermelon margarita for the table,” she looked at the rest of the crew, “Trip Advisor says it's amazing.”

Ben, who sat next to her in the booth, spoke softly to the waitress, “I'll get a Dos Equis Especiale.”

Dom added, “Make that two.”

Poe, “Three.”

Rey felt more dejected than she knew she should. She knew that, after all, she should have asked the crew before ordering for them. She spoke to the waitress slightly more meekly than before, “I guess just make it one margarita then, sorry" adding a nervous giggle that slipped out without her permission.

“Sure thing darling,” Beebee said with a hand on Rey's shoulder. Any other waitress calling Rey ‘darling' would have annoyed her, but Beebee was so genuine and endearing that Rey was comforted by it. Beebee walked away from the table.

Rey, anxiously to the crew, “Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Forgot I'm out with three blokes. Sorry.”

Ben put his hand on Rey's shoulder in a way that her logical brain was sure was intended to be comforting, but her anxious brain interpreted as patronizing. “Don't worry about it.”

Taking his hand off Rey's shoulder, Ben looked to Dom, “So, what’s the verdict on this one?”

“If this place isn't haunted then I don't know what place would be.”

“Poe?”

Poe smirked, “Yeah, sure. I dunno about ghosts but it’s definitely a spooky House.”

Ben turned wordlessly to Rey, she perked up, “I agree. It's got bad vibes.”

Ben, jabbing, “Bad vibes? That counts as haunted now?”

“People say that hauntings will often have a negative sort of presence” Dom interjected, which Rey was thankful for because she was definitely about to respond a lot pissier than Ben had earned. She made a note to herself to go steady on her margarita when it came.

“Wow!” Ben continued, still playfully mocking, “The bar just keeps dropping for team ghosts, doesn't it?”

Dom and Poe chuckled.

Ben continued, “I kid, I kid. I do concede, the House has ‘bad vibes’.”

Rey, playful now, “Oh, you concede, do you?”

Ben chuckled, “Don't twist my words: I still don't think there are ghosts in the Snoke House.”

“Of course not Ben, we all know you decry the existence of all things paranormal.”

“Except aliens.”

“Except aliens. Hey, Dom, we should do an episode next season where we stay somewhere with alien abduction activity!”

Dom, excited, “Great idea. I'll look into it.”

Rey, with a cheeky smile directed at Ben, “It’ll be fun to see you with that nervous expression Dom has in haunted places.”

Ben laughed. Dom, playful, “Nervous?”

Ben, still laughing, “Yeah, nervous isn't quite the right word. It's closer to ‘shitless'.”

The crew burst out laughing at that.

Rey's phone buzzed in her pocket, she pulled it out. There was a message from Finn, her best friend of many years: hey girl how goes the ghost house?

She smiled, typed a reply: totally fucked - I'll talk later tho

She put her phone away and picked up the menu to browse, “Everything’s supposed to be great, but I've heard really good things about the fajitas and the pulled pork nachos.”

Ben, cheekily, looking past the top of his own menu to pin Rey with his gaze, “Let me have a look before you order this one.”

Rey’s cheeks went hot with anger, but she said nothing to show it, instead returning a cheeky smile to match Ben's.

Less than a minute later, Beebee had returned, carrying a tray with the three beers and Rey's bright pink margarita. She placed the drinks down in front of the crew. “Here's your drinks for you. You ready to order?”

Ben looked at the other members of the crew, “How do we feel about pulled pork nachos and mixed meat fajitas for the table?”

Rey smiled but underneath she was finding nothing but increasing contempt for her soon-to-be roommate for her stay in the haunted House.

They got back to the House approaching 1 in the morning. The four, all carrying their backpacks or small suitcases, sluggishly climbed the staircase in silence. They had eaten well. There was a muttering of ‘goodnight’ before splitting off to their rooms.

Ben opened the door, and Rey was again presented with the room she'd be sleeping in for three nights. In the room was one double bed, a bedside table on one side with a small lamp, and nothing else. As they had learned both in their tour with Luke and through their own research for the episode, both families that had lived in the Snoke House, the Snokes and the Christensens, had planned to fill the home with children. Unfortunately, neither had the chance to, before the madness of the House consumed the patriarchs of both families. The empty bedrooms were another grim reminder of the shattered dreams and silenced screams that this horrible House held within its walls.

The two put their cases down – Rey with a blue backpack, Ben with a small, black suitcase. Rey looked to Ben, “Is it alright if I get changed first?”

Ben nodded and spoke softly, “I'll be out in the hallway.” With that, he stepped out of the room and shut the door lightly behind him.

Rey sat down on the bed and bent down to reach the shoelaces on her black Converse knock-offs. After pulling off her shoes, she pulled her backpack to her, unzipping it and taking out her pajamas – long winter pajamas that were a pinkish purple dotted with dark blue elements from Beauty and the Beast (Rey's favorite film); a candelabra, a clock, a rose, a mirror. The shirt was black and had a white rendition of the film poster, Belle and the Beast silhouetted in an embrace.

Rey took her phone out of her pocket and put it on the bed, then undid the fly of her blue jeans and pulled them down past her hips, exposing her dark blue panties. They had small white stars on them, making them look like a night sky. Her jeans joined her shoes in an untidy heap. As she pulled off her white shirt, revealing her simple white bra, her phone buzzed on the bed.

She picked it up and looked at it, another message from Finn: ay i'm about to go to sleep so can you tell me about the ghost house bow

Finn: **now

Rey chuckled, unlocking her phone and typing a reply: Oh yeah

Rey: Well yeah basically it's so haunted

Rey: Probably most haunted place we've been to

Rey: The episode will for sure freak you out

Finn: siiiick can't wait aye

Finn: can't wait to see your work one day in a Top 10 Ghosts Caught On Camera video

Rey giggled.

Rey: I don't think we've caught anything visible on camera but for sure there's some spirit box stuff and some whispers and movement in the house

Rey: You'll get nightmares for sure

Finn: ooh shiiit i'm already scared 😂

Rey: Don't get nightmares tonight!!

Finn: well i'll try not too

As Rey was considering correcting his typo, there was a knock at the door and she jumped, suddenly aware that she was just sitting on the bed in her underwear. “Oh god— not yet sorry!” The mental image of Ben bursting in and finding her in this state made her cheeks flush.

Rey heard Ben chuckle from the other side of the door, “Take your time.”

That fucking boy.

Rey: Gotta go, goodnight 💖

Finn: night x

Rey locked her phone, quickly removed her bra, pulled her pajamas on, and scampered to the door, opening it to find Ben waiting for her on the other side. “Sorry, I got distracted.”

He shrugged, “It's fine.”

He walked into the room and shut the door softly behind him.

It suddenly occurred to Rey just how close they would be, for three nights. Inches apart, sharing a bed in the cold of autumn. There would be no room to hide anything.

The reality was even closer than the thought. She could feel the warmth of his body from just an inch away. His breath softly brushed at the back of her neck. Whenever she relaxed enough to sleep, she would hear him stir and she slammed back to wakefulness, too keenly aware of her co-worker’s closeness to her.

Whenever her mind fell back into a dreamy, half-awake state, she still found herself wandering through the house. She would walk down the stair-case, counting the steps as she went. When she reached the living room, she would walk to one of the light fixtures on the wall near the fireplace. Every time she touched the fixture she would snap back to wakefulness.

She was starting to overheat and get fidgety. It didn't help that whenever her legs moved, they would brush against Ben's, whose legs were even hotter than her, somehow. She pulled the blanket off her, but within a minute she would get cold again and—Rey was becoming uniquely frustrated by the whole ordeal. She pulled her pajama pants down and off, throwing them somewhere on the floor, then removed the blanket one last time to expose her bare legs to the cold air of the room. Already feeling more relaxed by this, her heart rate started to slow gently, and she dozed off again.

_Down the last of the stairs, into the living room, towards the fireplace. Reaching out to the light fixture just to the left_ —

Rey snapped back awake and her legs were freezing. She got back under the blanket, shivering. Feeling the heat coming off Ben, Rey tentatively shifted her hips backward, nestling her cold, bare legs against his, which were covered by black pajama pants and exactly the warmth she needed against her.


	3. Awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey uncovers a secret of the House.

The first thing Ben was aware of when he woke up was Rey, her hand gently on his shoulder, her voice soft in his ear. “Ben, wake up. Ben.”

His dark brown eyes looked up at her, meeting her gaze. “What time is it?”

“Quarter past 9. Poe and Dom are already in the hallway but there's something you need to come see.”

Once Ben got himself out of bed, he was led downstairs by a vibrantly excited Rey, along with Dom and Poe who were just as puzzled as himself. She took them into the living room and stood to the left of the fireplace. Poe was filming, apparently Rey had instructed him to. “I just kept dreaming about going downstairs and going to this light fixture,” she gestured to the light behind her. “And whenever I would touch it, the dream ended. So, I came down when I woke up and went to the light fixture, and...” She grabbed the black iron casing on the light and gave it a solid yank downwards. As she did so, the wall to the left of the fireplace swung open, revealing a short hallway, leading to what seemed to be a small, enclosed room. Ben, Dom, and Poe were all wide-eyed at the reveal.

Ben spoke first, clearly excited, “Oh, no fucking way. A secret room?!”

Rey, with a proud grin and a twinkle of glee in her eyes, “I know!!”

Dom, in disbelief, “This is crazy. I can't believe I'm seeing this.”

Rey looked at Ben, who seemed to be considering something behind his deep brown eyes. He spoke with a measured tone, “Does anyone else know about this, or are we the first ones to discover it?”

Dom shook his head, “Nothing in my research spoke of a secret room. Including the Christensen's floor plans!”

Ben, who now seemed almost afraid, “So, what you're saying is, whatever we've just found hasn't been touched since... the Snokes lived here?”

There was a pause that rang through everyone as they came to grips with what they had stumbled into. Rey, still giddy with excitement, took a step towards the open doorway. Ben put up his hand and said quickly, “Wait. If we're the first to discover this, we need to tell Caretaker Luke. Make sure it's properly documented and reported.”

Dom, disappointed, “Ben, come on, it's a secret room! In a haunted House!”

“Yeah, and no one knows what's in there, Dom.”

Rey, still excited, “Yeah Ben, _no one knows what’s in there_!!”

Dom, playfully to Ben, “What, do you think there's gonna be booby traps?”

“We should exercise some caution, is all. Poe, come on, back me up here.”

Poe piped up from behind the camera, “Fuck that, I'm on team ‘storm the secret room’.”

A dim light at the end of the hallway slowly came to life, buzzing as it struggled against a hundred years of disuse. It crackled and fizzed out.

Rey stepped into the short hallway, arming herself with her phone's torch and nothing else.

Ben, in an almost disciplinary tone that shivered through Rey's whole body, “Rey, don't.”

She continued into the dark hallway. _Fuck that boy_. Dom followed her. Ben shook his head as Poe joined them.

He barked after them, “This is a fucking stupid idea that's going to get us into a shitload of trouble!”

Dom barked back “I'd rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission!”

After a beat, Ben followed the other three and joined them in the hallway, performatively displeased.

But in the room, they found nothing. It was completely bare. It smelled stale, the overwhelming scent of damp dust and wallpaper and wood crawling into Rey's nostrils as her torch light passed over the beckoning emptiness. The soundscape of the room seemed deeper and darker, too. The ambient room tone of the rest of the House had dropped an octave. Rey remembered the cellar having the same sensory experience. The four looked around the empty room, even more puzzled and curious than before. There had to be _something_ in here, there simply had to be. What would be the point of a secret room with no contents?

Dom looked around the barren room and spoke fearfully, “I remember in that letter, Elizabeth speaks about her husband going missing for hours at a time. That he'd return to her later and when she asked where he'd been, he'd just say, ‘in the House’.”

Ben's investigative spirit had been reignited, “But what would he do in here?”

Rey shook her head, rejecting the space. “It's wrong. There's got to be something in here. It's wrong, isn't it?”

Ben, looking at her curiously, “What do you mean?”

“It _feels_ wrong. There's got to be something...” She shone her torch around the dusty wallpaper, but then a thought occurred to her. She looked back down at the floor, shining her torch around, searching for a clue to confirm her suspicion.

There, a floorboard just slightly too short. Just enough to catch the eye if one were looking for it. Rey knelt down on the dusty floor and knocked on the boards next to the one she spotted; dull, flat. She knocked on the board that she'd spotted; brighter, fuller. There was a hidden space under the board. She pushed down on one end of the board and slid it across, then pulling the board away to reveal the secrets within.

A worn, black, leather book. A journal.

Ben spoke quickly and crossly again, “No one fucking dare touch that book. It's a historical artefact, it needs to be documented and treated with care. If we damage it with even the fucking oil on our fingertips, we're liable. Does everyone understand that?”

Rey felt a wave of shame that went straight to her chest. It made her feel like a punished schoolgirl. She stood back up and looked at Ben with boiling disdain. She said nothing.

Dom was the first to speak in the uncomfortable silence of Ben’s assertion. “We have to do _something_ in this room, at least. Could we do… Fuck it—could we do the spirit box in here?”

Ben inhaled slowly and sighed with clear frustration. He spoke firmly, “Fine. But we all agree that we’re going to Luke about this, right? So that we can look at the journal without getting into serious shit?”

The others nodded and all muttered a meek ‘yeah’.

Ben now spoke a bit more calmly, trying to redirect the tension in the room, “Good. Okay, let’s all get dressed and prepare for a shoot, yeah?”

Another ‘yeah’ from everyone. They hustled out of the secret room. Once they were out, Rey yanked the light fixture back up and the door closed behind them.

After showering, getting dressed, and having breakfast (Luke had left some basic breakfast staples in the fridge and pantry for them), they all went back to the secret room with all the gear ready to film. Rey kept the camera steady on Ben and Dom, with Poe filming close-up reactions on big moments. All had their phone flashlights on, and the cameras both had a light attached. Dom held the spirit box, and the two boys both looked at it with dread as Dom flicked the switch and the box came roaring to life.

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshsh AWAKE shshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

The boys laughed at the immediate activity. The voice piercing through the static was deep and male and reminded Rey of the voice from the _Thriller_ music video.

Dom spoke to the box, “Hello, who is this?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshsh AWAKE shshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Who’s awake?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshsh AWAKE shshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Ben and Dom laughed. Ben jabbed, “Did we wake you up, ghost?”

Dom laughed.

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshsh AWAKE shshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Yeah, ghost we get it.”

“Our names are Dom and Ben; can you say our names back to us?”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

ShshshshsShehs Awake shshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“Okay, if you don’t start saying something else, we’re gonna turn this thing off.”

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshsh BEAST shshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

“What’s the beast?!” Dom was unreasonably panicked, which prompted a laugh from Ben.

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshsh AWAKE shshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Dom laughed, “Alright, that’s enough of that.”

Shshshshshshsh.

Dom turned the spirit box off.

Dom laughed again, “Well, that was super weird.”

There was a soft, whining creak, and the door slammed shut.

Dom and Rey both yelped. Ben didn’t make a sound, but jumped in fright, then laughed nervously. Poe whipped the camera around to point it at the door. The light of Poe’s camera revealed that there was no handle of any kind on this side of the door.

As the calmest and most practical one between the four, Ben spoke, “There’s got to be a way to open it from the inside.”

Rey started thinking practically, “Right. Yeah.”

She looked around the room, looking to the light that wasn’t working. She walked up to it, giving it a yank downwards and… Nothing. It didn’t budge.

Ben spoke sternly, “Everyone focus, no one panic.”

“That actually doesn’t help, Ben.”

“Rey: don’t start shit. Let’s just focus on getting out of here.”

“Ben, if there was a way out, that was it.”

“Okay, then we can call Luke and get him to let us out. It might take an hour, but we’ll get out of here. Alright? We’re not trapped.”

As soon as Ben finished speaking, there was a loud THUD from above them. Dom and Rey yelped again.

Ben, firm, “We are okay. Nothing’s gonna happen to us. Dom, you’ve got Luke’s number. Call him.”

Dom put his hand in his pocket, looked at Ben wide-eyed.

“Dom, if you tell me your phone is not in your fucking pocket--"

“I must have left it on the kitchen table!!”

“You are fucking kidding me right now!!”

Poe snapped at them, “Everybody be quiet!! There has got to be a way out from the inside. Shut up and find it. Got it?”

The boys nodded sheepishly.

Rey panned her light around the room, slowly searching every imperfection in the walls, the details of every floorboard, and then to the corner of the room (which seemed further away than Rey remembered).

There laid a beheaded woman.

Rey screamed and dropped to the floor, kicking herself backwards away from the woman. Her light flicked around the room erratically with her frantic movement, the camera swung from her neck by its strap.

Ben rushed to her, grabbing her shoulder and saying comfortingly in his chocolate voice, “Hey, hey, what is it? What is it?”

Rey blubbered in fear and pointed at the corner of the room. She aimed her light back at it.

The corner was empty.

“There was... There was a woman. She was just there! She was right there!”

Ben nodded soothingly.

“You do believe me, don't you?”

Poe, who was near the door, piped up, “It's here! There's another--" he knelt down to the floor and popped out another small floorboard, then cranked the lever that was underneath it. The door swung open again.

Dom practically sprinted out of the room; Poe followed. Rey was still catching her breath, her head still spinning from a spike of adrenaline and cortisol. Her heart thrummed in her ears. She felt sick.

Ben looked at her with sincere concern, “Do you need me to help you up?”

She nodded. He hooked his rock-solid arm under her shoulder and helped to lift her from the floor. Not enough to end her state of horror, but it calmed Rey to have him holding her. She felt protected. Once they were out of the room, Poe yanked the light fixture back up and the door closed behind them.

Rey kept gripping Ben tightly. His worried gaze was locked on her.


	4. Journal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew venture into town to recover from the terror of the secret room.

“I'm not staying another minute in this House.” Rey said shakily, her voice hoarse from panic. “I just can't. I just can't. I need to get out. For the day, at least.”

Ben looked from Rey to Dom and Poe, who both seemed just as shaken. They all nodded.

Poe was the one who spoke, “I’ll set up static cams and motion sensors to do our job for us while we're out. But yeah. We'll get out of the House today. Go into town. Sound good?”

Everyone muttered an agreement.

“You guys can wait outside or in the car, I guess.”

Ben spoke firmly, “I'll help you. Someone needs to be with you in the House.”

Rey was hoping she could have Ben wait with her in the car so that she could keep holding him for comfort, though she knew that Poe would be hard-pressed trying to convince Dom to stay in the House to help him. She'd forgotten, in fear and vulnerability, that Ben was her co-worker, one she didn't really seem to get along with, at that. She let go of his arm and crossed hers in front of her chest.

She spoke to Poe, “You guys’ll take a while to set up the gear; is it alright if you give me the keys and I go for a quick drive?”

Poe seemed apprehensive, he looked at Dom. Dom spoke nervously, “I can go with her.”

Poe nodded, fishing out his keys from his pocket and handing them to Rey.

She was very frustrated that Dom would be joining her, but it would have to do. “See you in a bit. Text Dom when you're almost done, and I'll turn around.”

Poe and Ben nodded.

Rey turned and walked to the front door; Dom followed her. She stopped him, “Go get your phone.”

“Right.”

Turning the key in the ignition and feeling the engine purr to life washed away the sloshing fear within her for a peaceful moment, like seaweed being lifted from wet sand by the tide and floating into shallow water.

Her hand sliding fluidly from the key down to the gear-stick and holding the power of the vehicle under her palm before putting it in reverse, sliding her right hand up to join her left at the wheel and locking it to the left, reversing back until the car was side-on. Right hand back down to the gear-shift, click into drive, wheel lock to the right, driving forward and down to the metal gate.

It was only with wavering self-restraint that she didn't plow straight through the gate. Gear into park. She hopped out of the car, swung the metal gate open, and got back into the car. Gear into drive and _pedal to the fucking floor_. Barrelling down the muddy dirt road, only slowing for turns, and even then letting the car drift a little, the exhilarating gap between the car having traction and sliding free through the mud prompting an involuntary laugh from Rey.

Dom yelped from the backseat, reminding her that she wasn't alone. She cruised the speed back down to a mellow 40.

“Sorry.”

“That’s alright. Aren't you going to shut the gate?”

“No.”

“...Okay.”

Those were the last words they exchanged on the drive until the call from Poe to turn around.

Often a therapeutic drive for Rey would be accompanied by blasting music, anything from trashy early naughties pop to loud classic rock. But this drive needed auditory solitude. Just the rev of the engine and the hum of the car’s wheels against the dirt road.

When Dom got the call from Poe, Rey felt as though only fifteen minutes had passed, and was surprised when Dom informed her that it had been closer to forty. “Forty minutes to set up static cams? What took them so long?”

She heard Poe's voice through the phone say “Ben told me to wait around a bit to give you more time to drive. So, you're welcome.” Rey smiled. Maybe Ben wasn't all bad, after all.

Elmwood, despite the spooky name, was a very pleasant town. Walking around, Rey saw a healthy balance of families with playful children, happy seniors, and groups of teenagers on a day out. The air smelt fresh and had a refreshing bite to its chill, and orange leaves squashed and occasionally crunched under her shoes.

The town looked old, the freshest paint on some of the buildings being possibly as old as Rey was, the colors having long-turned sun-washed yellow, blue, and orange.

After a relaxing wander through the town, visiting an old candy store (for Dom), a bookstore (for Ben), a leather store (for Poe), before pausing for lunch at a deli (for Rey). After they ate lunch rolls followed by an assortment of slices, Dom called Luke on speakerphone and told him of the secret room, and the journal. Thankfully, Luke was excited by the discovery. “A secret room, eh? Well done! Yeah, well if you're in town you can just get some leather gloves, I'm happy to reimburse you. Is it alright if I come over when you break open the journal?”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“Luke, Rey here, you told us to let you know if we saw anything paranormal.”

“Rey, hello, did you see something in the secret room?”

“Yes. I saw a beheaded woman. That would be Elizabeth Snoke, wouldn’t it?”

“Oh, good grief. That's gruesome. Yes, that would be Elizabeth. I'm sorry you saw that. Are you alright?”

“Still a little shaken but I'll be okay.”

“Okay, good. What time are you thinking of heading back to the House?”

The crew looked at each other, Poe answered, “Probably late afternoon, ish. Let's say 4?”

“4pm, got it. I'll be there. Well done on the discovery.”

Dom spoke again, “Thanks. We'll see you later.”

“Alright. See you.”

Dom ended the call.

Poe raised his eyebrows at the other three, “I heard ‘leather gloves'?”

Dom chuckled, “Yes, Poe, we can go back to the leather store.”

After going to the leather store and buying the gloves, which Poe took his time selecting, the crew decided to go on a local short walking trail through the nearby forest. The air was thick with pine and soil, and twigs crunched underfoot with satisfyingly reliable snap.

Once deep enough in the forest, they followed along a flowing river that hissed along the rocks, the water clear and shallow enough to see the bottom was no more than knee deep. Rey climbed carefully down the embankment, took off her shoes and socks and carried them as she walked through the shallow river, delighting in the feeling of the water rushing around her feet. It had a biting cold to it that she enjoyed, despite the already cold autumn air.

It was the first time since they'd arrived in Elmwood that Rey had felt at peace. Surrounded by unenclosed, open nature; even though she knew it was relatively nearby, Rey felt as far from the Snoke House as she could possibly get.

When they were deep in the forest, Poe's phone dinged. “Motion sensors picked up something.” And just like that, Rey's short break from being terrorized by the House was over, and even though they still spent a couple of hours more out in the forest and then in town, Rey could only think of what was waiting for them back at the House.

She felt as though whatever had tripped the sensors had done so deliberately, to remind her that no matter how much she let herself relax away from the House, no matter how hard she tried to let the House drift to the peripherals of her mind, no matter how much it filled her with sickening dread, that she still had to sleep there another two vulnerable nights.

However, reviewing the footage from the static cams, what they found was worse than that persistent fear that thrummed through her every thought and suffocated her mind whenever she stepped foot in the House. They found nothing. Nothing had moved at all. And this agitated Rey even more.

The House was taunting her.

Luke was astounded by the secret room, and was practically vibrating as they prepared to open the journal. Dom, wearing the brown leather gloves they had bought, pinched the cover and lifted it open.

_The Journal of Ichabod Snoke_

_The Year 1916_

There wasn’t much of interest in the first lot of pages. It was the latter half of the journal that sparked discomfort and unease, which picked up with greater alarm the closer the entries got to the final.

_October 3 rd_

_I saw the woman again. Again, again, again. Twelve nights I have seen her in a row now. Normally I would only see her once every few months, but her visits to me have grown more and more frequent of late._

_I awoke at an irregular hour and found her standing over me as I slept, whispering terrible words for me to hear. She smiled as I awoke and I felt calm, though that calm was dissonant, as though I hadn’t actually felt it but had been made to feel it, somehow._

_The terrible words she whispered I bear not to repeat; it would do me better to put it out of my mind entirely, but I find myself drawn to the things which she had talked about. My mind repeats those awful words, a dark mantra that pulses through me and leaves madness in its wake._

_With each passing day, madness stirs within me, growing louder and more powerful as I fear it threatens to consume me. I feel as though this House wants to consume me, digest me and leave an empty form of my spirit behind, lingering in the space between life and death, between light and dark, between time and space._

_But I will not let it take me. I will not do as this witch says with her dark whisperings._

_October 4 th_

_Tonight marks the thirteenth consecutive night on which I awoke to see the woman and hear her whisperings. I will not do as she says. I fear now that if I were to tell someone of my nightmares that I would be locked away, that I would be condemned as a lunatic, and I am not mad. I am not mad._

_Madness tries to grip me, like a mighty Beast closing its jaws around me but I will not let myself be eaten by Him. I will not let myself be eaten by Him. No, I fight through. I fight through His gripping bite and I fight my way out of His jaw and I am free. I will be free. And I can make myself free of Him. And I can make Elizabeth free too, because I am strong. I deny the dormant madness that resides in this House any pleasure that it may take on my soul. I will not be eaten by Him._

_October 5 th_

_I have made a funny discovery, and that is that wine is the only thing that will keep her quiet. Huzzah! Now that terrible voice shall leave my head and I will be alright, quite alright, thank you! She has visited me so frequently, tried so desperately to seduce my soul to her embrace, but I have found the key to her defeat._

_You whisper to me so urgently, but I am not listening! I am not listening! You cannot tell me those terrible things that I must do anymore! My ears are closed to you, witch! You have spent so long consuming my mind that I had forgotten how it feels to have it to myself, but now I reclaim it. I have reclaimed my mind from the tight clutches of madness. All is well._

_October 6 th_

_More and more wine I drink and still not a word from that wretched witch! I have found my cure, and I shall live in happiness and tranquillity and bliss forevermore. This House is mine. My soul is mine. My mind is mine. You cannot take me, witch!_

_October 7 th_

_I see her but she says no words, for she knows I cannot hear her. She follows a step behind me, waiting in my shadow for me to turn to her but I will not! I will not satisfy her!_

_I almost heard her tonight, but I was clever enough to up my dosage and that cured me. Elizabeth pesters me about my drinking, but I’d sooner drink to quiet that witch than consider doing what she had told me to do to her. If only she could see that I’m doing this for her sake. I’m doing this for her, to make her safe. Can’t she see that?_

_She says she’s worried about me, s ~~he should worry about~~_

_No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no_

_Forgive me. I want to stave this burning madness so badly, to banish it forever and know that it has been smote, but this sensation prickles at my psyche and I know I am unwell and I know not what to do_

_October 8 th_

_I must be mad. I have tried so ardently for so long to delay what was clearly inevitable from the moment I crossed the doorframe of this evil House. I have orchestrated the machinations of my own demise and have cemented the path of my descent. Madness grips me. It is only a matter of time._

_October 9 th_

_The Hallway was longer than it appeared. There was a woman there, I did not recognise her. Suddenly, I was chasing her. I was screaming, bellowing, gnashing my teeth. I wanted to catch her. We’re just playing a game, you see? I’m just going to chase her ~~and chase her and chase her and chase her~~_

__

_October 10 th_

_She tries to hide from me but I can see her. She can’t get away from me. She’s so scared of me and she should be, for even I do not know what I would be capable of if I caught her and my axe could meet her pretty throat._

_October 11 th_

_My pretty girl in the Hallway is gone and I am sad. I just wanted to play. I was having such fun and now I am back in this House with nothing but my wife and my thoughts and I’m growing sick of both companies._

_October 12th_

_I do not know how much longer I can hold on. I am being stretched by my attempts to delay._

_October 13 th_

_I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murde **r** my wife. I will not **murder** my wife. I will not murder m **y** wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife. I will not murder my wife._

_October 14 th_

_I just want to leave, to go anywhere but here. If there is a God, I pray that my soul may be granted the salvation of Hell._

The entry of October 14th was the last entry in the journal. It was the night that Ichabod Snoke took an axe to Elizabeth and beheaded his wife.


	5. Afraid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shaken by their discoveries, the crew go to a bar.

“Well, that's fucked,” were the first words from anyone after Dom had read the journal, and they came from Ben.

The warning signs in Rey's mind had never had more urgency, nor more clarity. They needed to leave. They needed to leave. They needed to—

“We need to leave.” Rey was surprised to hear this from Ben. He was looking at her with clear concern. Rey felt guilty; she didn't want everyone to leave if she was the only one who felt this way.

She added, “Or, at least, I need a drink before we come back here to sleep.”

Ben was still looking at her with concern that frustrated her, “Are you sure?”

Stubbornness fought fear and won. “Yeah. I'm fine.”

Little did Rey know, Ben had voiced the wishes of everyone in the room, and Rey had only empowered everyone’s insecurities; that they were the only ones feeling this way, that they should just go out for a drink and come back and pretend that it’s all fine.

Ben looked to Luke, “Do you know a pub?”

Luke gave Rey a serious look. “No one would blame you for being overwhelmed.”

Rey, getting sick of the patronizing masculinity in the room, barked at him, “Do you know a pub?”

Luke swallowed. Ben smirked.

Luke, moving past Rey’s unexpected viciousness, “Yeah, _The Island_.”

“Great. I can drive.” Rey looked at Poe and held out her hand expectantly. He raised his eyebrows and gave her the car keys. She could tell that he did not like doing so.

Fear and anger wrestled in Rey’s chest, blurring her memory from leaving the House to getting out of the car at the bar. The crisp autumn air of early evening stung her face, but she refused to feel it.

_The Island_ had a strange music selection that mostly consisted of folksy pop from the late 60s. The design was clearly trying to accommodate both the pub that it was now as well as the pub that it must have once been before whomever the current manager was had come into the picture. It had kind of worked.

 _The Island_ was probably once named something that sounded more rural and less hipster-ish, something like “ _Owen's Homestead_ ", or even just “ _Owen's_ ". _The Island_ was probably once designed something like the tavern that Gaston and Le Fou burst into song in; rustic, wooden, classic. _The Island_ was probably once the victim of a terrible fire sometime in the 70s and had then been rebuilt exactly the same, how it had stood for another few decades before this refurbishment. _The Island_ had _definitely_ faced local outcry at the change in management whenever it had happened, but it was clear that the regulars had gotten used to the changes and now didn't seem to mind as much. It was still the same place they'd gone for a pint and a chat for as long as they knew, just with an updated look. The curtains were green instead of blue.

There were a number of assumptions that Rey made about _The Island_ that seemed easy to make, but something that had surprised her was how isolated Luke made himself there. He sat at the bar and only barely engaged in conversation, but then seemed content, relieved even, when it drifted away from him, and he was left alone with his fast-draining third pint.

She had expected him to be recognized by the people there, engage himself in lengthy sessions of repeated embellishments, memories from younger years with a sheen of beer clouding their truthfulness. She searched the photo-covered walls of the pub for what she imagined a younger Luke to look like, but she couldn’t find him. It was strange. She expected him to be the hero of the pub, but instead he was alone, and nothing but alone. It filled her with emptiness, which she then plugged with beer and a surprisingly decent cheeseburger.

Beer blurred Rey’s brain, it started to make her think about how strange and seemingly impossible the human stomach was, that it could still look so small compared to how much liquid she knew was in her. She felt it sloshing around whenever she moved, felt the sickly, acidic sensation at the back of her throat that ached and begged her not to drink more, which she disobeyed.

Luke left the group at some point. It could have been before, during, or after the cheeseburger. That was a _fucking good_ cheeseburger. Rey vaguely recalled him saying he was on good terms with the owner of the nearby motel, who would let him stay the night for free.

Even though she felt present-minded, it was beginning to require more active recall to relive the events of just minutes prior, and those memories felt distorted and uncertain. Rey could’ve sworn she’d been to the bathroom not 30 seconds earlier, but _fucking hell_ — she’d have to stumble her way there again.

Ben kept looking at her with concern as she tipped back her drinks. _That god-damn boy_. She wanted to be irrationally angry with him, but every witty comment he made at Dom, every dorky laugh, every movement of his dark eyes captivated her. She kept catching herself staring at his full lips, his thick forearms, his large hands. She blamed it on the intoxication, not aware she was lingering until far after she’d already lingered.

She was almost thankful that the need to pee came in and saved her from lingering on those thoughts for too long.

As she stumbled to the bathroom, another wave hit her, drinks from minutes earlier having caught up with her and now out-pacing her.

_Fuck._

_Jesus, I’m so much drunker than I thought I was._

_***_

_This spot’s comfy._

_Oh, I’m leaning on Ben’s shoulder._

_Fuck it, he’s comfy._

_He doesn't seem to mind._

_***_

_This isn’t the bar._

_This isn’t Ben’s shoulder._

_Oh, Ben’s in front of me, driving._

_Car. I’m in the car._

_This is either Poe’s or Dom’s shoulder but if I move my head I’ll definitely throw up._

Ben’s eyes met hers for a flicker of a moment in the rear-view mirror.

***

_I’m being carried._ Looking up at his face, she confirmed what she had suspected _. By Ben._ She felt one arm under her knees and one under her neck. _Bridal-carried, no less._

“Ben...” was all she could muster.

He said nothing.

“I can walk, you can put me down.” She said, near-unintelligibly.

“No, you can't. You tried already.”

She couldn't remember doing that. Rey was embarrassed that she'd gotten herself to this state. She was trying so hard to put the Snoke House out of her mind that she hadn't thought of consequences. She felt like a burden; he was literally carrying her. Rey groaned with shame. “I'm sorry Ben. I'm sorry.”

She expected him to speak with a bite to his words, but instead he whispered gently. “Sh, sh. It's okay s- Rey. I've got you.”

Although her perception couldn't be trusted, she could've sworn that he had started a word but abandoned it after the opening ‘s’. It was as though he had gone to call her by a different name. However, he had pivoted his speech so naturally she was barely certain it had happened.

His pace slowed and Rey was being bounced more vigorously with each step as Ben carried her up the staircase.

It struck her that despite her state, this was the safest that she'd ever felt in the Snoke House.

He lowered her softly into bed, then stepped out of her sight. She heard his movement around the room and moved her head, more testing if she could do so without feeling sick than trying to find him in her sight-line. Thankfully, she felt okay this time, but her gaze found him near-naked, standing just in his underwear, turning his pyjamas back the right way.

His pale chest was a sight to behold, hairless and toned with muscle. Looking down, Rey imagined wrapping her hands around his thighs, and she wasn't sure if even both hands would grant her the circumference she would need. Then she realized what she was doing and looked away quickly, hoping he hadn't caught her.

She looked down at herself, realizing that she was still completely clothed, suddenly feeling uncomfortable in her grey jeans. Sluggishly, she moved her hands to her fly and managed to undo the button and zipper. She lifted her hips and tried to pull her jeans down but was finding the effort difficult to exert. She heard Ben's footsteps come towards her and instinctively said, “I can do it.”

He hung back at her side, now in his grey pyjamas, and watched her continue to struggle with it for a moment. She looked at him pleadingly and sunk back down into the bed, giving up. His huge hands slowly moved to her waistline, taking care to appear deliberate and unaggressive, but there was no need. Rey already felt comfortable with him doing this for her.

She felt his fingers hooking into the waistband of her jeans, being very careful to not take the extra layer with them. As he pulled them down her legs, past her butt, still slow and deliberate, Rey felt two shivers run through her body. One running up her legs, one running down her torso, that met in the middle and pulsed between her thighs. She bit her lip instinctively. Hot silence shook the air between them.

He pulled the jeans off her and tossed them to the ground. “You need my help with anything else?” He said in a low tone that strengthened that throbbing pulse.

She swallowed, breathing heavy, and spoke against her wishes. “No.”

He walked around the bed to his side and climbed into bed. His movements seemed rehearsed, careful. He was doing his best to keep the tone of the room calm between them. She turned to face him in the bed, her eyes taking a dizzy second to catch up to her head’s movement. He was looking at her with the same protective concern that she’d seen from him more than three times that day.

She looked again at his lips and pushing out desperate words, she whispered, “Thank you, Ben.”

He nodded, speaking just as softly, “Happy to help.”

She turned again, facing away from him. She felt him turn away from her as well. Lying in bed next to him, aching with desire, consciousness gradually slipped away from her.

She was woken by a loud _THUMP_ in the hallway.

Her and Ben both shot up in bed. They didn’t look at each other, both staring terrified at the door. Rey still felt quite drunk, lightly dizzy. After a tense moment, there was enough stillness to confirm that there would be no other movement. But it had happened. Now they looked at each other, and their gazes meeting felt like a collision. They didn’t speak for a long moment, then both looked back at the door.

Ben slid out of the bed and walked towards it. He had his phone in his hand, pulling up a camera app. He opened the door and stuck his head out.

***

There was a man in the hallway.

He was tall and cadaverously thin, with gaunt and rotting facial features. His neck was bent, almost sideways. He wore a well-tailored, old-fashioned suit with a golden tie that suggested wealth.

And Ben could see right through him.

He looked like he was made of cobwebs and dust. A red haze glowed around his form, like the edge of candle-light.

He stood completely still at the top of the staircase, staring blankly at Ben as he filmed on his phone, as though looking through him, right back.

There was no other explanation for the man that Ben saw.

He was the ghost of Ichabod Snoke.

Ben wasn’t sure how long he spent watching the spectre, filming it on his phone. He turned his head back to the room, looking to Rey, she looked terrified. He couldn’t bear to tell her what he saw.

“There’s nothing out here.”

Rey nodded. There was fear in her eyes. “Come back here, please.”

Ben ended the recording on his phone, then closed the door and made his way back to bed, lying next to Rey, facing her.

Their eyes met again with magnetic intensity. Rey spoke so softly, barely audible, spacing her words out nervously. “Can you… hold me? _Please?_ ” She said the last word with desperate emphasis and the quietest breath. “I’m sorry, I’m just… I’m so afraid.”

He wrapped his powerful arms around her, feeling her head cradle under his chin, nestling against his collarbone. Her hair tickled his nose. One of his huge hands came up to her head and he slowly ran his fingers through her hair. He could feel her heart thrumming against his body, her body tremored and twitched with terror. Ben felt connected to her, body and soul. He felt her fear, and he was overcome with an immutable need to protect her.

He had tried so hard to shut down any thoughts of her that didn’t categorise her as a co-worker _only_. He had tried not to be completely overcome by lust when he was undressing her. He had stopped himself from calling her ‘sweetheart’ before when he was carrying her, an instinct that he was embarrassed by after batting it away. But he couldn’t stop those thoughts now, and they flooded to him as he held her. As hard as Ben had tried to stop himself, he knew that he had only started stopping when it was already far past too late. He had fallen for Rey so completely, and he knew that there was no helping himself now, other than to continue manifesting his affection in the hopes that she felt the same.

Ben whispered in Rey’s ear; softly, comfortingly, with trembling breath, “Don’t be afraid; I feel it too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want you to know that I did something very meta and deliberate in the description of 'The Island' and I really hope that you pick up on it because it made me feel soooo clever ahaha


	6. Gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben are disturbed after their encounter, Rey puts on a movie to help calm down.

A long moment of silence passed between them. Rey's breathing steadied. The air was cool and still. Ben continued tracing his fingers through her hair, keeping his eyes fixed on the door. Every now and then their silence would be interrupted by a small creak outside the room that would refill the tension in the air and make Rey jolt suddenly.

Rey pushed sarcasm through fear, “Still a skeptic?”

Ben, simply, “Don’t.”

“Sorry.”

Silence rang dully between them. Again, she was the one to break it, “This is fucked. This place is _so_ fucked.”

“It certainly is that.”

“Can we leave in the morning?”

“We’ll talk with the others. But I would like to. As you put it, this place is _fucked_.”

Ben cursed as though he was teaching someone how to say the word. Every part of it was prominent and carefully spoken. Rey was relieved to know that he had her back, that it wasn’t just her who felt more unsafe the longer they stayed in the House. She was also pleased by his repeating her vulgar language and it drew a warm chuckle from her that she didn’t have any say in.

“Is it alright if I watch a movie on my laptop? I don’t think I’ll be able to calm down enough to sleep any time soon.”

“Sure. What movie?”

Rey got up from the bed, the cold air hitting her thighs reminding her that Ben had left her in her black panties, and light dizziness reminding her that she was still drunk. She fetched her laptop from her backpack, then slid her legs back under the covers and sat up in the bed and lay the MacBook Air on her lap. Opening the lid, she looked at him while she typed her password and replied, “ _Beauty and the Beast_ ,” then looking back at the screen as she navigated her messy desktop, “Animated, obviously.”

“I prefer the French version from 1946,” _of course he did_ , “but the Disney retelling is certainly well put together.” He had said this with a barely detectable pause after the word ‘certainly’, which was clearly a space in which to think of the rest of his sentence.

“Well put together? It’s one of the greatest films of all time!”

He exhaled out of his nose as if to say _that’s absurd_.

She smiled playfully, “You know, I might’ve known you would be a film snob.”

He smirked. Rey pressed play on the movie.

Ben was asleep before Belle even arrived at the castle, and Rey was drifting off around when the Beast was saving Belle from the wolves. She closed her laptop and lay it on the ground next to the bed, and lay herself down on the pillow, letting consciousness slip from her. Even her favorite film had only calmed her slightly, and her thoughts as she fell to sleep still drifted towards the terrifying question mark of what lay behind the door.

_Is there something out there?_

_What is it?_

_What does it want?_

***

The next time Rey woke up, it was morning. And she felt like garbage. Not sick, just unpleasant. No, sick. Her stomach complained, sensorially and audibly. Her brain felt like it was trying to stream 4K video on dial-up internet. She needed to pee, a signal from her brain that was getting more and more urgent the longer she stayed awake. She checked the time on her phone – 7:17.

Ben was still asleep next to her, so she very carefully swung herself out of bed and grabbed her grey jeans from the floor, pulling them up her legs with considerable effort, even pausing between each leg to gather herself. Once dressed, she tip-toed towards the door. As her hand reached for the handle, she was suddenly paralyzed by the idea that there would still be something on the other side. Waiting. She let a moment of stillness go by to confirm that there was nothing there, then carefully opened the door.

In the hallway, there was, thankfully, nothing unexpected. She quietly made her way to the bathroom.

When she returned to her and Ben’s room, Ben stirred at her opening the door. She whispered, “Just me.”

He didn’t respond, still mostly asleep. She knelt down to grab her laptop, then made her way out of the room again. Going downstairs to the living-room, Rey lit the fire and sat on the maroon leather couch, which was comfier than it had looked. She continued watching _Beauty and the Beast_ from where she remembered being up to. Once she was up to the Mob Song, Dom appeared from the stairs. “Howdy.”

“Morning Dom.”

Dom indicated the laptop, “Nice.”

“My idea of a hangover cure.”

“Oh, yeah? How’s that working then?”

“Not as well as I’d like.”

Dom smirked.

Rey paused the movie and continued, “Oh, Dom, just a heads up, Ben and I reckon we should call it today. Pack it in and head home once everyone’s ready. This House is just… fucked.”

Dom nodded. “Right. Well, I suppose I’m with you there. This House is fucked.”

Rey smiled, recalling Ben saying the same phrase. The curse sat differently in Ben’s mouth compared to Dom’s. Ben’s utterance of it made her blush. It felt dirty and loaded. When Dom said it, it felt like a pixie in a pillow fight.

Dom looked puzzled. “Did something happen with you guys last night?” He asked, then immediately added, frantically, “Oh, no, I mean, did you get any activity? Paranormal, that is.” He laughed nervously.

Rey shrugged, “Not sure. There was some banging on our door, but Ben said he couldn’t see anything unusual when he looked out.”

Dom looked shocked, “Did you film it? Did he film it?”

“He took a video on his phone when he looked out, so you’ll have to ask him. Plus, we’ve got the static-cam in our room that probably picked some of it up.”

“Good, good. You, um… You should’ve told me?” He had said it as though it was a question, even though it was more of a reprimand spoken without the authority that a reprimand requires.

Rey was a bit caught off-guard by Dom’s attempt at assertion. She shrugged. “We weren’t really thinking about that at the time. Sorry.”

Dom shrugged it off, “It’s alright, just, remember we’re here to film a show. If you have content, that’s something the crew needs to know.”

Rey disliked this faux-authoritative shade of Dom. It felt off-color with his usually meek and snivelly demeanour, there was a dissonance about his transition into it that disgruntled her. “Alright.” She turned back to her laptop and pressed play. The message to Dom was clear: _fuck off_. And thankfully, he did.

Poe was the next one downstairs, around 8 o’clock. By this time, _Beauty and the Beast_ had just reached the end credits, and Rey’s body’s complaints were more of a low white noise than the groaning whale song they had been before.

She went to the kitchen and fried up some bacon (verging on charcoal) and scrambled eggs (well-cooked, but bits of egg were now flecked all over the stove and floor). She plated up her breakfast and looked at Dom and Poe at the table, who were both slurping coffees and telling competing stories of their most chaotic nights out, which Poe was definitely winning. “Don’t worry, I’ll clean this up when I’m done eating.”

They didn’t reply with more than a nod, but that was fine. She grated a pile of cheese on top of the eggs, cracked some salt and pepper on as well, then sat at the table and shovelled greasy, salty, buttery food into her mouth, occasionally moaning with mouth full, “Oh my fucking _god_ ” to laughs from Poe and Dom. She finished eating it in about half the time it had taken to cook it, and the feeling of a full tummy faded away the unpleasant hangover. As she was scraping the fork across a mostly empty plate to catch the remains of eggs and cheese and bacon grease, Ben emerged into the kitchen, still wearing his pyjamas, but with a dark grey hoodie over the top.

Dom smiled and said, with chipper wit, “Good morning sunshine.”

Ben smiled, but in a way that let Rey know that he didn’t appreciate it.

Dom continued, “I hear you guys caught some activity last night.”

Ben, clearly at least half an hour away from being as socially presentable as Dom, “We, uhm… Yeah. There was some, uh, banging on our door and so I stuck my head out to see if there was something there— I got it on my phone.”

Ben pulled his phone out of the pocket of the hoodie and started swiping and tapping the screen. He brought the screen down to Dom and pressed play on the video.

Watching again the events of last night, Ben was just as horrified as he had been the first time that he saw the ghost of Ichabod Snoke, standing on the staircase, looking coldly at him. It terrified him, chilled his bones, and stopped his breath just as much as it had the first time. That much was the same. What was profoundly different, however, was the presence of Snoke at all. The man made of cobwebs and dust, tall and thin as death, face gaunt and rotting, glowing red as blood and fire, didn’t appear on the video at all. It was as though he had never been there in the first place.

“No, he was… I swear, there was something there.” He had an intense and equal blend of fear and anger that burned through him at the sight of the empty video. “I swear to fucking god, there was… It was Ichabod, somehow. He was like, dusty and see through and glowing red— I saw him! I fucking saw him!”

Rey’s eyes widened, shock and fearful surprise thundered through her, “You what?! You saw something out there and you didn’t tell me?!” She wasn’t sure how to feel about this but a fiery stubbornness in her told her it should be some angry flavor of betrayed.

“I… I don’t know what I saw.”

“You said it was Snoke!”

“Well it mustn’t have been because he’s not in the fucking video— I don’t know!”

Dom cut in, “Wait, you saw an actual fucking apparition and you didn’t think to tell me?! There’s so much shit we should have done with it! Thermal cameras, spirit box, flashlight communication—”

Ben sniped back, “Dom, I wasn’t thinking of our fucking internet show when I saw a fucking ghost, okay?”

“Well, Ben, what were you thinking of? Because I just fail to see how you could— How you could forget why we’re in this House in the first place, _while you’re looking at the reason_!”

Ben shot a look at Rey that burned with wild intensity. There was a chaotic passion in his dark eyes that melted her. He turned back to Dom and resumed their vicious, cyclical debate, “I was thinking of my terrified friend and I didn’t want to scare her any more than she already was. You would have done the same.” His tone here was more hushed and precise in a way that shivered through Rey’s body as though she’d just touched an exposed wire.

Silence shook the air. Rey heard Ben’s voice from his phone, _‘There’s nothing out here’_ , then her own, _‘Come back here, please’_. The video ended there. Ben put his phone back in the pocket of his hoodie. Rey was suddenly embarrassed, there was definitely a vulnerability to her pleading that could be easily interpreted… any number of ways. She hoped to god that no one would comment.

Poe was the first to speak after this silence, saying calmly, in a leadership tone, “Let’s all just calm down a bit. Now, we’re gonna leave today. But before we do that, we should conduct our wrap-up investigations, then we can pack our stuff and get the hell out of this House. Everyone okay with that?”

Everyone nodded and said some variant of ‘ _yep’_.

“Good. Now I don’t want to hear any more of what Ben and Rey should or should not have done. They were in a scary situation and Ben still had the presence of mind to film some of it, which is more than perhaps I would even say of myself if I was in his shoes. Dom, I want you to shake Ben’s hand and then I want us to agree to move on.”

Ben protested, “That’s not necessary.”

Poe raised his eyebrows to indicate that he meant it, “Hey, just do it.”

Ben exhaled, frustrated. He held his hand out to Dom. Dom took it and they shook hands.

“Good. Alright, now we’re gonna set up our final investigations—”

Ben cut him off, “I’m going on a walk.” He exited the room and headed for the staircase. Rey got up from the table and said to Poe, “I’m going with him. I’ll try to calm him down.”

Poe nodded at her, “Thank you. We’ll set up and maybe get a head start.”

Rey went to the staircase, feeling the air get colder the closer she got to the thirty-seventh step, pushing fearful thoughts away and knocking on the door of her and Ben’s room. “Ben, are you decent?”

Instead of answering, he flung the door open, suddenly standing an inch from her, now dressed in black sweatpants, still his grey hoodie, which was zipped up, and black sneakers that were clearly well-worn. His expression was hard to read; she didn’t think he was angry, but she couldn’t be sure. His breath was heavy.

She pushed words out, “I’m coming with you. Is that alright?”

He shrugged in a slightly rude fashion and spoke with a tone to match, “Why not?”

Ben was grumpy, which Rey was surprised not to be put off by. Rey pushed past him, into the room. “I’m just going to throw shoes on. I won’t be long.”

Ben didn’t say anything. Rey quickly pulled on socks and wrestled with her black Converse knock-offs’ shoelaces, and then hurried to Ben at the door. “Alright, let’s go.”

They made their way back down the stairs, Rey tripping down the last two which threw off her meditative counting, but she thankfully caught herself on the thick wooden railing. The two wordlessly left through the front door, leaving Poe and Dom still in the kitchen as the chilly, windy autumn air bit at their faces and grey clouds loomed over them, much like the pulling sense of dread in Rey. There was an unshakeable feeling that something was off. Or, rather, something was _on_ ; previously dormant, or patient, that had now been activated. The House, or something within it, was _awake_.


	7. Loud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben go on a walk while Dom and Poe get started on the final investigation of the Snoke House.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Alzheimer's mention, implied euthanasia.

Dom smiled at Poe once the door shut and said quietly, “Someone’s grumpy.”

Poe smirked, “That’s enough of that. Come on.”

Poe chatted as he led Hux upstairs. “I’d like to set up the thermal camera pointed at the spot where Ben said he saw the ghost. Once we're set up, I'll call Luke and let him know we're leaving today. After that I’d like you to do a spirit box session, before grumpy Ben gets back.”

Hux chuckled. They went to their room and grabbed the gear, then shuffled back to the staircase. Hux couldn’t be sure if it was the bias of having heard Ben’s ghost story or his own natural paranormal intuition, but he could certainly sense _something_ at the top of the stairs. It didn’t feel necessarily like a presence, more of a general state of things being heightened or uncanny. “Do you feel that?” He asked, vaguely indicating around him.

“What, is it colder or something?”

“No, it’s not that, it’s just…” He didn’t finish his sentence, instead pivoting to “Let’s get everything switched on. I feel like we’re missing something.”

There was a short sound. Too short to distinguish what or where the source could be, but it was a deep and threatening rumble that had no specific direction to it. Poe and Hux whipped their head in opposite directions, Poe looking back down the hallway they came from, Hux looking down the staircase. A directionless _creak_ followed. Then things settled back to silence that wasn’t as comforting as silence should be.

Poe and Hux shared an odd look, then Poe said, quietly, “Okay, you keep going, I'm calling Luke.”

Poe pulled out his phone and pressed the call button on Luke's contact, then put the phone to his ear. The dial-tone purred a couple times, then Poe heard Luke’s voice buzzing through the speaker. “Poe Dameron, how can I help you?”

“Hey Luke. Uhm, things are getting a bit crazy here at the House and, well, we wanted to let you know that we're gonna cut our investigation a day early.”

“Really? Crazy how?”

“There’s been an apparition sighting, some strange noises through the House... It kind of just... it kind of just feels wrong. We're just a bit spooked, I guess.”

“It's certainly a spooky place. Even two nights there is impressive.”

“Yeah. We're just gonna conduct our final investigation and then we'll be on our way. Probably within the next hour or so. Hey, reckon it’d be okay for you to come around so we can go in the cellar again for the final investigation?”

“Sure! I’ll be around in about half an hour.”

“Excellent, see you then.

“Okay, see you then.”

“See ya.”

Poe ended the call. There was another creak from somewhere non-distinct, but Hux's voice cut short Poe's moment of curiosity. “Alright, thermal camera's set. I'm ready for a spirit box if you are.”

“Great, I'll just go get the actual camera.”

Hux smirked, “Yeah, thought we were forgetting something.”

Poe turned and walked back down the hallway, towards the room. With each step, the floor creaked softly under him, and the walls groaned around him. Grabbing the camera bag off the floor, he unzipped it and pulled out the camera. He placed the strap around his neck, then exited the room.

Looking back down the hallway at Dom and the staircase, once again he was struck by an uncanny feeling. He couldn't place it. There was something in his primal senses that was telling him something was wrong with what he was seeing. But there was nothing obviously out of place. Dom stood at the staircase waiting for him, holding the spirit box. The thermal camera was set up on a tripod, surveying the scene. There was nothing wrong with what he was seeing at the end of the hallway, but his brain was screaming at him.

He walked back down to Dom, the creaks in the floor and walls accompanying his steps. Poe and Dom shared a look of worry, or unease, and Poe said “Yes. I do feel it. I just can't quite... place it.”

He switched the camera on. “You ready?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Alright,” he hit the red button on the camera, “rolling.”

Dom put on his host face and addressed the camera, “Last night, Ben said that he saw an apparition standing,” he pointed at the ground, “right here, where I’m standing. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it didn’t show up in Ben’s phone footage, so we’re gonna go in with the spirit box and see if anything is hanging around.”

He braced himself, then activated the spirit box—

 **A̸̸̛̛̲͔͇͓͎͍̠̙͞A̷̵̧͞͏͍̭̞͚͔A̧̛̤͇͎̗̳͙̜̳̙̘̝̳͈͖̭̤͇͖͖A̡̼̱̰̮̼̱̩͕̟̳̭̫͚̟͓̗̘͇͝** AAAAAAAshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

It roared to life with a detached scream that almost sounded inhuman, then transitioned into a wailing female voice which was then sharply cut out by the pulsing static of the box. It felt like a scream they were not meant to hear, it set the hairs on their arms on edge.

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

ShshshshshshHELPshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

ShshshshshshshshshshshsMEshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

ShshsI’MshshshshshshDEADhshshshshshshshshs

ShshshshSHȘ̴̛̼͇̙͖̞͙̩̞̩́͘H̷̛̫̤̳̞̜̞̗͚͇͎͚̮̩̙͇̬ **S̴̨͔͉͕͕̜̱̺̝͉** **̣̳͕̫̗̯͍̘͠** **Ḥ̸̰̠͎̳̩̺̝͈̦͘͠** **Ș̴̛̼͇̙͖̞͙̩̞̩́͘**

The static roar cut out. Silence hung in the air.

***

Rey and Ben said nothing to each other for the length of the driveway. It wasn’t until they reached the forest just outside the gates of the grounds that Ben said “I suppose you're mad at me too. For not telling you about the... about what I thought I saw.”

Rey, slightly breathless from trying to keep up with him, “I don't know. I haven't decided how I feel yet.”

He smirked as though the tension was released, but then still spoke in an increasingly fierce tone, “Look, I don't know what I saw.”

Ben's fierce tone was intended to push her away, but instead Rey barked it straight back at him, “You sounded pretty certain, before.”

Ben didn’t respond. Rey pushed harder, “You don't want to see ghosts, do you? You just want to do an investigation, make it look like you're poking around, but you don't want to find anything.”

“Hey, if ghosts exist then, absolutely, I want to find them. That would be just awesome.”

“What did you see last night? Because you're acting like it was ambiguous or uncertain, but I'm pretty sure, from what you've said, that it was anything but.”

“I saw... I saw a man. He was kind of see-through, and dusty. And he was glowing red, around the edges. And he just looked at me.”

Rey smirked, “Sounds pretty certain to me.”

“Okay, fine, I saw a ghost. Happy?”

“What's your deal man? Seriously, what is your fucking deal. You saw a ghost! And you're acting grumpy about it.”

“I'm not grumpy.”

“Your tone disagrees.”

“I don't have a tone— look. I just... It can't have been. It just can't. It doesn't work like that. Science doesn't work like that.”

“You saw something. Something concrete and real. Why are you trying so hard to brush that off?”

Ben was silent for a long moment, then spoke softly. “I just don't get it.”

The anger had flickered out of him like an extinguished candle, flame of viciousness replaced by the smoke of hurt. He was exposed. Ben continued, “I don't understand.”

They had stopped walking. Rey was challenging him to meet her gaze. He looked at her, eyes vulnerable. “My dad...” in his silence, Rey heard the word _‘died’_ as clear as if he had spoke it. Her expression softened.

Ben continued, his voice sounding as though it was being pushed out of him, “Five years ago. Alzheimer's. He wasn't the best, wasn’t around much when I needed him. But he tried, and sometimes he just had the right thing to say.” He smiled and Rey could see a happy memory behind it, “One time I crashed my bike into his car, I was nine. He saw the dent and, man, he loved that car. I mean, just _loved_ that car. He saw the dent and I saw his face just fall. Then he put on this funny kinda smile and said _‘eh, she’s been through worse, kid’_.” Ben imitated his dad with a voice that made Rey picture an old cowboy. “He had a way with words, old dad. Got him into and then out of a lot of trouble when he was younger. It was actually how he met my mom... Anyway.” The smile faded. Pain returned. “At the end, I mean, you know how it is with Alzheimer’s. He couldn’t leave the hospital bed. Couldn’t remember me, couldn’t remember mom.”

“I’m sorry Ben. That must have been awful.”

“I just couldn’t watch it anymore. It was tearing me apart. The life support was barely doing anything, he was just… a guy in the shape of my dad. I couldn't just watch it anymore. Just watch his soul vanish from his eyes and look at me—look at me with that awful, empty stare. He wasn't living, Rey. He was just waiting to die. I couldn't—I couldn't do it anymore, I had to...”

There was an awful pause between them before Ben's next words came.

“I just... If ghosts are real, then why haven't I seen him? Why can't I talk to him one last time? Make him understand why I did... what I did.”

Rey reached out to him, held his hands in hers softly.

“You must think I'm a monster.”

She shook her head, “No. You're not a monster.”

“Yes, I am.”

“No. No. What you did was very brave. I don’t know if I could have the strength, if I was in the same position—”

“Don't pity me.”

“No, Ben, I'm not pitying you.”

“Yes, you are.”

Rey spoke with anger but what she actually felt was compassion, “Ben, I’m just trying to help! I'm trying to listen to you, comfort you. I promise, I don't want to hurt you.”

Her breath shook as their bodies edged closer and closer to each other.

“The last thing I would want to do is hurt you.”

Her eyes darted from his lips to his eyes, his desperate eyes stayed locked on hers. Her arms slowly came up and wrapped around his back, she rested her head on his chest. As rain began to finally drip down, his arms wrapped around her, too.

The raindrops were thick and heavy, and as their frequency increased, the sky cracked with thunder and hissed with lightning. The grey clouds from before were night dark. Still Rey and Ben remained holding tightly to each other. She heard his breath grow ragged and heavy, and she knew that he was crying, or trying not to, so she tightened her embrace and nuzzled more at his chest, hearing his heart beating.

When their hug parted, both of them were completely saturated by the rain. For Ben's dignity, Rey tried to avoid looking at his raw eyes. She held his hand still, and said softly, “We should head back.”

His voice weak from heavy crying, he pushed out “Sure.”

It hurt Rey like a cold knife plunging straight into her chest to hear his voice so vulnerable. The more her thoughts dwelled on him, the tighter her throat felt. She felt strangled by her compassion for him.

Trudging closer to the looming House, Rey cursed under her breath as her shoes squished into unavoidable mud and soaked through. The walk back felt shorter, Rey was surprised when she looked up and through water-blurred vision saw the House standing just a few paces away. Ben scuffed up the stairs leading to the door and opened it, then holding it out for Rey.

Rey wiped her shoes on the floormat, then stepped inside and worked on her shoelaces, then pulling off her mud-soaked shoes. Ben stepped inside and did the same. Dom yelled out from the top of the staircase, “Hey, welcome back.”

Ben took a deep breath, then yelled back, “Get anything done while we were gone?”

“Yeah, we did the spirit box and thermal cam in the spot where you saw Ichabod. We also called Luke to let him know we’re leaving and asked him to come back around so we could do the cellar again before we go.”

“Great.”

Rey, now in tragically wet socks, walked towards the stairs.

“But yeah, shouldn’t take too—”

In less than 3 seconds, several things happened. The House rumbled, the sky outside roared with thunder and flashed with lightning, a loud metal whinging sound followed by a huge snap above Rey’s head, and then Ben’s body colliding with Rey, pushing her down and catching her at the bottom of the staircase. Then, the loudest shattering sound that Rey had ever heard as the massive chandelier hit the ground right where Rey was standing.

Dom and Poe stumbled down the stairs and saw Rey and Ben at the bottom of the stairs, the shattered chandelier barely 3 feet away from them. Crystals of glass exploded outwards from the crash zone, covering the floor from the staircase to the doorway. Poe, worried, “Is everyone alright?”

Dom, quickly, “Holy shit!!”

Rey, winded by the fall, “We’re fine, I’m fine.”

Ben, also catching his breath, “I’m okay.”

Dom and Poe both sighed with relief. Before she even caught herself speaking, Rey found herself saying “We need to go. We need to get our things and go. Right now. It’s not safe in here.”

Ben followed from her, “I agree. No investigation, no filming. We need to leave.”

Dom nodded nervously, as did Poe, only with less nervousness.

Poe spoke with authority, “Everyone go to their rooms, gather your stuff, meet at the car.”

They all sprung to action. Rey, adrenaline still pumping through her, overwhelming her, exhausting her, quickly made her way up the stairs with Ben following behind her. Dom and Poe were already headed straight for their room. Rey tripped up the last two stairs, again throwing her meditative count, which now frustrated her. Angry tears stormed in her eyes; she could feel her hormonal cocktail fizzing through her, as though it were trying to punch its way out of her body. _Can I have no relief from this fucking House?_ Ben took her arm and helped her back up again. “I’ve got you.”

“Thanks.”

They entered their room and immediately got to work packing their stuff that was strewn around the room. Something buzzed in Rey’s brain, a discomfort, a bubbling unease. It was a sense that she’d missed something obvious, seen something or noticed something that hadn’t quite ticked over and resolved itself and it was simmering and sitting there waiting for her to pay attention to it and put the pieces together, pleading for her to notice that she knew what the danger was, that she knew what wasn’t right, that she knew what was waiting for her.

She finished packing, putting her backpack on the bed and looking at Ben, who was fighting with the zipper on his suitcase. Finally getting it closed, he looked at her. Her eyebrows were furrowed, trying to work at something. Without hesitation he asked her, “Are you okay?”

“I’m… There’s something really wrong. I can _feel_ it. I’ve just… I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“No, I think I’m…” she closed her eyes and mashed her palms on her cheeks, then pushing lightly on her eyes. When she opened her eyes again there was a clear frustration behind them. “I just feel like I’m missing something, something really obvious, and it’s just… there. I just can’t quite see it.”

“Let’s just get out of here, worry later.”

“Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. Let’s go.”

Rey swung her backpack onto her shoulder, Ben extended the handle of his suitcase so he could wheel it along the floor. He walked up to her and they looked at each other, expectantly. They shared a smile of relief, then Rey walked to the door. Ben followed her out of the room.

Walking down the stairs, Ben’s suitcase created a rhythmic bumping sound as it rolled off each step. Rey spoke over her shoulder to him, “Why did you bring a suitcase for a three-night stay?”

Ben smirked and shrugged. “I’m not the best at packing. Clearly.”

Rey chuckled. “Maybe next time I should help you.”

“You still want there to be a next time, after all this?” He gestured vaguely around himself, indicating the whole House.

Rey smiled, “Let’s see. I mean, it can’t get worse, right?”

“It could be.”

“That so?”

“Oh, yeah. You could’ve had to share a bed with Dom.”

She laughed, far too loudly. Ben smiled and a small laugh spilled out, less a reaction to his own joke, more a reaction to her joy. Suddenly she exclaimed, “Shit!” and tripped down the last two stairs, thankfully catching herself on the wooden guardrail before she could plant her wet-socked feet onto the floor at the foot of the stairs, covered in shards of glass from the fallen chandelier.

Ben caught up to her at the bottom of the stairs, surveying the length of the floor between the foot of the stairs and the front door. “ _Shit_.”

He looked at Rey and said, jarringly calmly, “I’ll go first. Once I get across, I’ll throw your shoes to you.”

“Ben, you’ll hurt yourself.”

“Maybe. But better just one of us than both of us.”

Before she could argue with him, he stepped off the stairs, carrying his suitcase in his hands, and hopped to a small patch that was empty of the glass crystals.

“Please be careful!” Rey said, a touch of fear in her voice.

“Yeah.” He said back, with obvious snark.

He hopped to another empty patch, this one he was on tiptoes trying to avoid the shards. He hopped again quickly; this patch emptier. With one last leap, he made it to the doormat, where his and Rey’s shoes sat.

He picked up Rey’s black knock-off Converses and threw them at the staircase. Rey caught one but the other sailed past her, thudding on the stairs behind her. She grabbed it, then sat down and put her shoes on, and once she’d finished, she stepped out to the floor. Trying to walk on the empty spots, she still crunched glass underfoot. She made it to Ben as he’d finished putting on his sneakers.

They looked at each other, then both looked back at the House, looking at the view from the front door one last time.

The staircase in the middle, beckoning deeper in. To the right of the staircase, there was the closed, black, wooden door that interrupted the witch’s cauldron wallpaper, and then closer to the front door was the entrance to the living room. From the front door, Rey could see the wall in the living room that opened out and led to the secret room. Above them, the hook on which the chandelier once hung. To their left, the dining room and kitchen. Rey could see the dining room’s fireplace, and the painting of the forest that hung above it.

Rey turned and looked at Ben, they shared a smile, then Ben reached for the door handle. He opened the front door and they walked out of the Snoke House.

On the walk down to Poe’s car, Rey felt a falling sensation in her. It wasn’t a directionless tumble; it was a clear sinking feeling that was leading somewhere. They reached the car and Ben turned back to look at the House, saying curiously, “How much shit did Dom pack?”

Rey didn’t laugh.

She’d reached the end of the fall, and with it came the answer to the puzzling wrongness that had plagued her since before they had left for the walk. With that came four certainties that shattered through her mind as loud as the chandelier when it had hit the floor.

There were now thirty-nine steps on the staircase.

The black door had not been there before.

There was now a wolf in the dining room painting.

Dom and Poe were in danger.


	8. Lost

There was no assailant or apparition or creature on the staircase with Dom and Poe. No obvious source of danger, no threat that stood on the stairs, lying in wait for them. There was no monster. There was no murderer.

The threat was the staircase itself.

No longer the thirty-seven-step state of normal, nor the thirty-nine-step oddity, the staircase was now a monstrous behemoth. It extended so far down that the bottom was impossible to see. The light from the top of the staircase became more and more consumed the further down one looked.

They looked at each other, breath frozen. Dom held the wooden guardrail in one hand, the camera in the other, muscles tensing in fright. He looked at Poe, his already normally pasty face sheet-white, “What the fuck?!”

Poe immediately barked back, “Come on, let’s go back up!” and grabbed Dom’s shoulder. They ran back up the stairs to the hallway. Dom’s breath was heavy and quick. Poe was doing a better job at containing his fright, but his eyes were wide and darting frantically. “What the fuck is going on with this House?”

From down the hallway, the furthest door creaked open. The boys were frozen in fear. From behind the door there was a heavy dragging sound and the thump of a footstep.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Poe and Dom tore down the stairs, their backpacks jostling against their backs.

As

they

ran

further

and

further

down,

it

got

harder

and

harder

to

see

what

was

directly

in

front

of

them.

Dom’s

footsteps

clattered

down

endless

stairs.

Anxiety

shrieked

in

his

ears.

He

heard

his

heart

booming.

Felt

his

throat

burning.

Stair

after

stair.

Light

fleeting.

Darkness.

Dom

was

running

blind.

“Poe,”

he

choked

out

through

ragged

breath.

No

response.

Dom stopped.

A distance behind him, he heard Poe’s footsteps. Though they sounded slower now, a shuffle that sounded possibly injured. He called out to him, “Poe, are you alright?” He pressed some buttons on the camera, switching it to Night Vision Mode and aimed it towards the shuffling footsteps.

Then

he

sprinted

away.

Because

Poe

wasn’t

behind

him

anymore.

And

whatever

was

following

Dom,

there

was

no

trace

of

it

in

the

camera.

***

Poe

_tripped_ and fell down, his feet expecting to find another stair that was instead just flat ground. He winced at the shooting pain in his right ankle but scrambled to his feet in spite of it. He looked around in vain, still seeing nothing but blackness. He heard nothing around him either. Not even Dom’s footsteps, which were right in front of him just a moment ago.

“Dom?” Poe shouted.

No response.

“Dom?!”

He couldn't even see the hand in front of his face. Poe turned himself around and stepped up to climb the staircase again.

But his foot slammed down further than he anticipated, as though he were slipping on empty air.

The staircase was gone.

Urgently, he fiddled with the buttons on the camera, switching it to night-vision mode. Still, he saw nothing around him.

There was only darkness.

Endless, directionless darkness.

“ _Dom_?!” he called out into the vast abyss. His voice boomed out with a ringing reverb and an odd echo that had a buzzing whine around the edges that reminded him of speaker feedback. The atmosphere of the space just felt incomprehensibly wrong, like something being both hot and cold at the same time. The space felt mutually exclusive within itself, as though the space was cancelling itself out. Poe walked out into the darkness, forging a path that he believed, or hoped, to be straight.

When Poe was on his 7th grade camping trip, one of the activities they had done was orienteering. The kids went out into the woods in pairs with a set of directions and a topographical map and asked to navigate between a series of points using only a compass. Poe had been paired with Kaydel Connix, who was a very commanding and stressful partner for the activity, and she had dropped the compass in the river as they crossed it between the fourth and fifth clue.

They had gotten lost in the woods for just over an hour. Poe remembered feeling true fear for the first time in his life. The intangible sensation of not knowing which direction to go in, of not knowing when they would find the way out, of not knowing whether or not they were walking in circles, of watching the sun go down and having to hope that they would make it out by the time it got dark – it filled him with a fear so primal, he felt himself stripped down to only his survivalist brain, which barked at him an urgent feedback loop to get out, get to safety.

_Get out of the woods._

Here he was again, only this time there was no Kaydel, no map, and no landmarks. There was no sun or moon or stars or clouds or trees. No matter what he did, no matter where he walked, he was lost. He would remain _lost_.

For ‘ _lost’_ , it seemed, was the only thing that the space was comprised of.

***

Rey looked at Ben and there was a pleading fear in her eyes as she said “Please, come with me. We... We have to go back in.”

Ben's expression and demeanour was suddenly frantic, “Go back in?!”

“Dom and Poe, they're in danger. We have to save them.”

“They're just taking a little longer, they'll be out soon—”

“No, Ben, not just that. The stairs, there's two more stairs than there should be. And there was a door, a black door that wasn't there before. And the painting. Ben, I saw the wolf in the painting.”

He looked at her, perplexed, “What do you mean ‘two more stairs than there should be?’”

“I mean I've been counting the stairs every time we go up or down them and this time there's two more. That’s why I kept tripping!”

Thunder boomed through the raging sky. Icy winds chilled the rain that had completely soaked them and was still coming down hard.

Rey's eyes were tearing, fearful, but also welling with acceptance. “I have to go back for them.”

Without waiting for Ben's response, she turned back to the House and marched quickly towards the door. It swung open without her having to touch it and immediately under her breath, she angrily muttered “Fuck you, House.”

She stepped across the line between ‘outside’ and ‘House’, a line that she had believed to have crossed for the last time not a minute ago, and once she was inside again, the door SLAMMED behind her, prompting a frightful scream that turned angry.

The Snoke House exhausted her. It made her tired in her body, her mind, her heart. Her throat tightened with unwelcome fear. She just wanted to get out. She just wanted to be free of this awful place. But here she stood, again. Inside its evil walls.

The glass of the chandelier crunched under her shoes as she hopped her way to the staircase. As she placed her foot on the bottom step, she peered up to see if she could spot any sign of Poe and Dom. She called out for them from the bottom of the stairs but received no response.

She turned her head towards the black door. The door that had not been there before, that stood plainly in the middle of the green and black witches' cauldron wallpaper. Its sudden appearance had to mean something. Rey was sure it meant something bad.

The door creaked open, presenting a long, dark Hallway behind. Impossibly long, impossibly dark. Rey couldn’t see the end of it.

Poe's voice screamed from within.

On Rey's first day of middle-school, she got a detention for punching Trent Slater in the face, saving a soft-spoken boy from what was quickly transforming from slur-filled insults to the threat of a proper bruising. Her and Finn had been inseparable ever since.

Rey was sure that entering the black door would result in certain peril and untold horror unlike anything this House had subjected her to so far. But she also knew that going into the Hallway was the only way to save Poe, and her instinct to save others, even at the expense of herself, was immutable.

Against all will, against all reason, against all that screamed within her, Rey stepped into the Hallway, surrendering to the uncertain darkness within.

“Rey?!”

Ben's voice came from just behind her, just outside the Hallway and her head whipped back to find him—

But the door was gone. All Rey could see was darkness.

Endless...

Directionless...

***

In an instant, Rey was too far ahead of Ben for him to stop her, but still he sprinted after her in vain, arriving at the front door just in time for it to SLAM in his face. “Rey!!” he yelled at the door, hand shooting for the doorknob. He flung the door open. There was no sign of Rey inside. She had been there, in his sight, only a moment ago. She couldn't possibly have gone more than a few paces in the time it took to open the door, but the House was uncaring about what was possible, only what was uniquely unnerving.

“Rey?!”

There was no response, and no movement in the House. As far as Ben could tell, it was completely empty other than him.

He ran to the black door that Rey had said hadn’t existed before and also flung it open. But he wasn’t met with a long, dark Hallway. All there was behind it was the green and black marbled wallpaper. Ben knew instantly, impossibly, that Rey was somehow in the space behind the door. He had given up his stubborn beliefs in what was purely logical and reasonable, for this House was neither. Rey was stranded in a contradictory space, both there and not. He pressed his hand against the tauntingly black wall, willing all of his being to feel her hand against his. He felt nothing but the cold wall.

Every recess in elementary school, Ben spent alone in the library. In the bathroom. In some forbidden area of the school where he would hide until the next bell rang. Every day he would go home to a house that ignored him, parents who were too busy to pay attention to their boy. Often, he would accompany himself with books. Stories of faraway lands, of space kings, of pirates and cowboys, of elves and assassins. Or, he would wander into bizarre non-fiction; learning about the moon landing, about the cold war, about the history of cryptozoology. Ben considered himself more well-read about the supernatural than Dom, though he would never tell Dom that.

He would try and try to tell his mom and dad, try to get them to share his interest, his excitement. All he would get from his mom was a “That’s amazing sweetie!” that felt to him like a very nice way of brushing him away, a passive ‘ _later’_ that gestured to a future time where she could step away from her work that wouldn’t come. All he would get from his dad was a half-smirk and a comment like “I feel like I’m there” that felt like admiration, but not a desire for Ben to continue talking.

They would try to make up with it in big gestures. They bought him more books whenever he wanted. They went to Disneyland twice a year. They went camping every fourth of July, and Ben and his dad would have father-son time that Ben eventually came to know as his dad earnestly trying to make up for every time that they hadn’t quite connected. Ben felt that he and his parents were parallel lines with only the most occasional intersections.

They tried. They earnestly tried. He knew that. But it couldn’t make up for how isolated and alone he felt so often.

“Rey…” he spoke to the empty wall, quietly. Pleadingly. “Please come back.”

He took his hand away and looked to the staircase. He walked over to it, stepping on the first step and peering upwards, seeing no sign of Dom and Poe. He called out for them, no response.

There was a shifting sound from within the House. Something behind a wall somewhere, he couldn’t locate it. “Rey?!” he called out, running back to the black door. He closed it, reopened it, still finding only the wall. He closed the door again. “Rey?! Is that you?!”

Another shifting sound, not from behind the door, from somewhere else. He ran into the living room, paused for a moment. The shift, again. From the secret room. He pulled the candle down, triggering the door swinging open.

Without thought, he turned on his phone flashlight and walked into the hallway, calling for Rey with each step, emboldened by every rumble from the guts of the House, every deep shift that he heard. This House was alive, and dark. And he wouldn’t let it take her.

_“Rey!!”_

He arrived at the secret room. Only, it wasn’t the secret room anymore.

The walls were a gross beigey-green, the ceiling eggshell white. A wooden bedframe with a single mattress, dark blue bedsheets, a cushy doona, and a pillow with a space pattern. One wall was a white sliding-door wardrobe. There were white blinds and in front of them a wooden desk, cluttered with books. Books about faraway lands, space kings, pirates and cowboys, elves and assassins, the moon landing, the cold war, the history of cryptozoology, ley lines and the paranormal.

This was his childhood room.

He heard from outside the room, the distinct sound of his parents whispering. Not their old voices as he knew them now, but as they were when he was younger, when they were younger. Glimpses of words trickled through, ‘ _try a different school_ ’, ‘ _just a phase_ ’, ‘ _make some friends’_ , ‘ _consult a specialist’_ …

Ben’s head spun towards the hallway to locate the voices, but the hallway was gone. What was there in its place was the same door that his bedroom had, plain and white. A tear burned its way down his cheek and dropped from his chin. He sniffed and wiped his face.

He remembered those nights vividly enough without being placed back there. His parents whisper-arguing about his social development, worried he wasn’t making friends, worried that he might be bullied. The truth wasn’t that he had trouble making friends, he could comfortably get along with most of the other kids in his grade if he wanted to. The truth was that it exhausted him.

He had to spend his recesses hiding away, he had to go straight to his room after school. Spending so much time having to interact with people spent his energy levels and left him feeling drained and tired and hollow. And it took far too long for his parents to talk to him directly about that, for them to be clued in that Ben’s development was fine, he was just introverted and socially anxious.

But having spent so long swirling around what the actual cause of Ben’s behaviour was had resulted in an irreparable rift between him and his parents. Their whispers at night built a wall of pressure that Ben couldn’t scale and only exacerbated things.

Ben’s hands leapt to the door and he opened it, finding only a blank wall on the other side. He turned back around, seeing the room of his teenage years.

As a teenager his anxiety was channelled through anger and resentment. The beigey-green walls became covered in posters for Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold, Brand New, Blink-182, Evanescence. He built himself out of back-handed sarcasm and a temper that he tried to keep private but never quite could.

He made friends with people edgier than him and did whatever he could to make his parents feel like he was apart from them, that they were losing him. Because the more they felt that they had lost him, the more they would try to reach out to him, and he hated how much he craved that from them.

He sank down with his back against the door. He hated this room. More angry tears burned down his face, fire balled in his chest, and his fist instinctively shot to the blank wall.

It broke through, wall cracking to reveal an emptiness behind. Ben looked at the fist-sized hole, and all he could see on the other side was darkness. He got on his knees and inspected the hole. It seemed not only like normal darkness, but as though it absorbed all light. Shining his phone torch through it illuminated nothing on the other side. He reached to the hole and gripped the wall, tugging to try and break it and tearing another small chunk from the wall. He punched around the hole again and again, making it wider and wider, breaking off pieces and casting them behind him, breaking off more, and more, and more, until the doorway was open and empty and leading out to the empty blackness.

Ben stepped through tentatively, feeling his shoe make contact with some kind of flat ground, then stepped through, walking out into the vast abyss.


	9. Abyss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey, Ben, Dom, and Poe attempt to escape the horrific Hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tweeted about this but I've been absent on this fic for so long NOT because I'm abandoning it, but because I'm graduating uni in like two weeks so I've been 1) overwhelmed with assignments 2) overwhelmed in general 3) burnt the fuck out creatively as a result. I can't promise my updates will be super regular in the next month or so, but I can promise that I am invested in finishing this fic and giving it a proper ending. An abandoned cliffhanger simply will not suffice. I will do my best to keep posting as frequently as I can manage.
> 
> Now, without further ado, we return to the Hallway...

Even pulling out her phone and turning on the flashlight illuminated nothing. The darkness was unstoppable. Rey called out into the pulling abyss, “Poe?!”.

No response.

She grabbed vaguely around her, hoping to find some sort of recognizable marker to help her make sense of where she was. She felt walls, they felt wallpapered. Smooth, but slightly bumpy underneath.

Shining the torch on where the walls were still illuminated nothing, just a steady, unmoving, inky black. Rey took her hand off the invisible wall and reached across to the other side of the Hallway, finding another invisible wall. _If the walls are there, so might the door._ Rey turned around, using the wall as a guide, walking back in the direction the door was.

“Rey, is that you?!” Poe's voice called out from ambiguous distance.

“Poe, it's Rey! I'm coming!” she yelled back.

“Oh, thank god, I thought I lost you.”

“Me too,” Rey said, feeling around where the door was supposed to be, but, of course, wasn't.

_Of course the door isn’t there, of course it isn’t_ –

Rey grabbed blindly, feverishly, getting more frantic and angrier at the impossibility of the House. She walked forward, hoping against hope that the door would be there, getting faster, running through the blackness, but it was of no use. The door was gone.

“Poe, the door is gone. I don't know how we're gonna get out.”

“Rey, I can't see anything!”

“Yeah, me neither.”

Rey turned around, facing where Poe's voice was coming from. She opened the camera on her phone and started recording. “How’s this for evidence, Dom?” she said quietly to herself, then called out: “Poe, I'm coming to you, keep talking.”

“I don't like this...”

“Neither do I.”

Rey started walking, away from the missing door, towards the pulling abyss.

Poe whispered sharply, “Wait…” then, “Rey, he’s back, hurry!”

Rey ran towards Poe’s voice, whispering back “Who’s back?”

***

Dom

clattered

down

the

stairs,

still

hearing

from

behind

him

an

uneven

shuffling

sound,

accompanied

by

haggard,

high-pitched

panting.

It

sounded

like

someone

in

distress.

He stopped running, turning back to face the shuffling noise. He heard it getting closer and closer to him, still seeing nothing approaching.

Then suddenly, a flash of heat hit him, retreating just as quickly as it had struck, turning his body dead cold as it passed through him.

And instantly Dom knew, as his vision faded to black:

It wasn’t a ghost that was chasing him.

It was Rey.

***

There was no way for Poe to discern the enormity of the lost space. He had no sense of geography or direction, no clear reference for which way he should go. He couldn’t even be sure that he wasn’t just walking in a circle. He couldn’t find the staircase that he had come from, he couldn’t find a wall or a door or any indication that this was, in fact, a part of the House.

He yelled out aimlessly; a fearful, barbaric yawp.

Poe was filled with the thick, cold sensation of defeat. There was no way out of the lost space, he was certain. The House, whatever entity it was, had won.

Looking at the inky darkness ahead and around him, Poe saw something. A texture to the darkness, some difference in environment. He slowly, fearfully, walked towards it.

As it got closer, Poe could see that the texture he was seeing, the interruption to the emptiness that defined the lost space, were trees. Thin, tall Redwood trees. He stood at the edge of a forest within the darkness. It looked uncannily like the painting that hung above the dining room table of the House.

There was a scuff of movement within the forest. He froze and held his breath. Another scuff, then silence. Two scuffs.

***

It was clear to Ben that whatever entity the House was, what it wanted was fear. Fear feeds the House, so bravery shall weaken it. Ben stood sturdily and walked boldly towards the pulling abyss. “I am not afraid.” He said with quiet strength, then yelling it: “I am not afraid!” His voice echoed out into the nothingness and encircled him before fading back to silence.

The sensation of the _pulling_ abyss grew stranger and more intense the further into it that he walked. It really felt as though he were being magnetised towards something, that there was something that the House wanted him to see…

Whatever it was, Ben was sure that it meant bad news. Possibly a trap. He had to turn around.

But when he turned, he still felt the pulling at his back, as though he were walking up an escalator that was trying to take him down. He turned back around and felt the pulling grow stronger and he said again, “I am not afraid.”

And suddenly, the darkness that surrounded him seemed to glow red; the rich crimson beginnings of a blood sunrise.

“I am not _afraid_!!”

A dark cackle filled the air. The pull drew Ben closer and closer to the epicentre of the House’s madness.

“I am not afraid of you!!”

“ _Young Solo._ ” A gaunt and guttural voice boomed.

The pull ceased.

What was once inky black was now bright, blood red.

“Who are you? What are you?”

“ _I am the Beast._ ”

“What, like, you mean… You’re _Satan_? The Devil?”

“ _Yes, and no._ _It matters not._ ”

“Well, I don’t fear the Devil,” Ben said with a taunting smirk, “Do your worst.”

The red faded again to black. A dark _WHOOSH_ sounded, and Ben saw, a distance away, a red spotlight shining down from above, illuminating… _Rey_.

***

_There she is again, that witch. The one I see in moments between sleep and wakefulness. As the door in front of me opens, revealing a dark void, the witch smiles oddly and hands me an old axe. I am filled with a sense of playfulness as I take the axe and charge into the Hallway. I’m not running aimlessly, I’m chasing something._

_It seems as though I run for hours before I see her, my target. A woman wearing strange clothes. She’s holding something that illuminates her path with a bright, white light. It looks like she’s holding a star. She stands with a man, also wearing strange clothes. We’re in a forest and I’m hiding behind a tree. I’m waiting for them to see me. For her to see me._

***

Poe hadn’t spoken in a while. Rey was pretty sure she’d lost him again. The Hallway was longer and larger than it appeared. It was larger than possible, though they were already far past that.

Rey just wanted to be out of this House. She wanted to feel safe again, to be in a place where she understood her surroundings; where walls didn’t feel like they were watching, where hallways were predictable and short and served architectural purpose, where doors waited for people to open them, where staircases had the same number of steps every time, where darkness could be illuminated away, where nightmares stayed in dreams…

She just wanted to be home. To feel home, in her big, loud, ugly, beautiful city. Fuck it, she’d be happy to just be in any other haunted house, just not this one. Not this House. This House was beyond understanding, beyond possible, beyond haunted. All it held was fear and madness and evil.

The Hallway was so filled with silence, it felt as though it was sucking sound out of the air. Rey could hear her heartbeat, her blood rushing in her ears, her breath. There was a total absence of ambience.

The darkness was beginning to swim and dance in her eyes, and she could never be sure if there was something actually ahead of her or if her eyes were just so unstimulated by the total void of light that they were starting to hallucinate something, anything to fill the empty space. Rey had read about this kind of thing happening to prisoners in solitary confinement; the less stimulated the brain is, the more it fills in false detail.

The brain relies on several interlinked stimuli to properly orientate itself and recognize environments. You see sand and water and your brain tells you you’re on a beach. But if you can’t see, you can hear the gentle slosh of the waves, the fizzing foaminess of the seawater being pulled away, the whining shriek of seagulls, the wash of the ocean breeze. If you can’t hear? You can smell the salt of the waves and the earthy scent of the sand. You can taste the salt in the air. You can feel the sand crunching underfoot.

The absence of sensation is the genesis of madness.

_Stop it. Stop it. You’re not going mad. This House is playing tricks, don’t fall for them._

_No, they’re real. The trees are real…_

Rey was approaching what seemed to be a forest. A forest, within a Hallway, within a House. Thin, tall, redwood trees. _Just like the forest in the painting_.

Suddenly, she heard something. A scuff of movement with unclear direction. Then another. Two scuffs.

Rey turned around and walked the other way – there was no way she was going into that forest.

Surely going backwards would find her the door, or Poe, or Dom.

But it didn’t.

It only found more trees.

The forest was enclosing around her. Every time she turned, the trees would be closer than they had seemed a moment before, and suddenly she was in the forest and she couldn’t run from it anymore and she stopped…

The scuff. The movement she made as she came to a stop. It was the same scuff she had heard before; she was sure of it. She scuffed her shoes again, again it matched the sound. _Two scuffs_.

Feeling an overwhelming instinct to, she called out, “Hello?”

“Rey?”

It was Poe’s voice, from nearby.

“Poe! It’s Rey, come towards my voice.”

“What are you doing in here?”

“I’m here to rescue you, of course.”

As Rey finished saying this, Poe reached her and they looked at each other, their faces melting into relief at the sight of another person. They pulled each other into a tight embrace. Poe, shaking with relief, “Oh my god, I’m so glad to see you.”

“I’m glad to see you too. It’s fucking mad in here.”

“It certainly is that.”

Their hug split, they looked at each other in slight disbelief. Rey continued, afraid to ask, “Where’s Dom?”

“I don’t know. We got separated.”

“How? When?”

“I don’t know. On the staircase.”

“We’ve got to find him.”

“I don’t know how we’re gonna find anything in here, it’s so dark…”

They surveyed the forest around them. Rey’s torch caught something behind a tree, a shimmer of something.

Then she realised, in horror, that it was the blade of an axe.

Wordlessly, she grabbed Poe’s arm and ran.

Ichabod Snoke chased.


	10. Tonight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The horrors of the Hallway continue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween!
> 
> This chapter is best experienced on a laptop screen because formatting gets ~creative~.

_Again, I awaken, greeted by a cold and empty space next to mine in my bedsheets. Though tonight feels different; stiller and quieter._

_In the stillness, a deep shifting sound rumbles through the walls of the House. Footsteps scatter around me, between the walls – between the between of the walls. I arise from my bed, looking around me for the source, but there’s no one here._

_Tonight **feels** different._

_I pray that the madness stirring behind my husband’s eyes has not gripped me as well._

_At the thought of **him** , a discordant clang of fright rings through me and an unsourced messenger from within me calls: Get out of the House._

_I know, something within me knows, that I must away, into the dark of the night. My mind is a frantic web of hallways and corridors that twist and turn and tangle into dead ends and endless doors._

_The mind is an intricate, beautiful, delicate, and sometimes frightening web of interconnected impulses and instincts. That fragile web is all that tethers our bodies to our souls, all that tethers our perception to reality. Many souls suffer in ways we cannot comprehend when that web becomes frayed; they suffer without any agency in their suffering, their instincts and impulses and thoughts mutating beyond their control, as with their corrupted perception of reality._

_Madness grips the mind as illness grips the body, and the madness within this House is like no other. It is an artificial, supernatural madness that parasitically twists and distorts until dreams are real and reality is a nightmare and waking is sleeping and living is death._

_I carefully, quietly move myself out of the bed, willing the floor not to creak underfoot. My body trembles with both fright and cold as I cross the threshold between the bedroom and the hallway. With every step I have to pray that Ichabod won’t emerge from wherever he dwells within this unhomely House and inflict his madness upon me._

_If I do not outrun the madness within these walls, this House shall consume me._

***

Rey ran, her pounding heartbeat shaking her body in sustained terror as the pursuing footsteps of Ichabod Snoke clattered loudly through the forest of empty sound. Poe ran next to her. Snoke seemed to growl behind them, his frenetic energy seeming bizarre and animalistic, like a rabid dog on the hunt. This, as well as his uncanny height and lankiness, contributed to Rey feeling as though they were not being chased by a man at all, but some almost-human creature.

The artificial forest was seemingly spawning randomly, with trees at unpredictable distances apart being another obstacle that Rey and Poe had to push past and dodge at speed. Rey’s throat burned and her mouth was filled with the dry, metallic taste of over-exertion but adrenaline and fear pushed her further.

Further, faster. Rey ran until she noticed all at once that Poe was no longer next to her, and Ichabod was nowhere to be seen. She stopped suddenly, breathing heavy and haggard, shaky and dry. Her legs wobbled, threatening to give out. She looked around the forest, desperately trying to find Poe. _I just had him; he was just with me…_

She saw him. Not Poe, Ben. A short distance away, offering his hand to her, his face full of the same fear she held.

“Rey, come. Quickly!” He said, reaching out.

Rey ran to him, full of relief and took his hand but when she looked at his face, she saw that he was smiling; an impossible smile that defied the natural limits of the human face. Icy cold creeped up her arm, and a shrill, womanly cackle came from Ben’s impossible mouth. Rey ran again, stumbling away on shaky legs, huffing and puffing, her body threatening to give out on her, but she came to another sudden stop, spotting Ichabod Snoke just paces in front of her and turned again to keep running in another direction. He yelled out from behind her, “Where are you?! Where are you, my sweet doe?! Are you playing another game with me?!”

Rey turned back, still running, to see that Ichabod was looking around, aimlessly. He hadn’t seen her. She stopped running, looked aside and spotted a tree with a thick trunk. She scampered to it and crouched behind the tree, watching Snoke as he stomped through the forest, sniffing the air as though trying to catch her scent. Rey held her burning breath as Ichabod’s heavy footsteps thumped past her and she watched him walk away. She let her breath continue, then quickly shuffled in the opposite direction.

After a long while of travelling through the dark forest, the trees got further and further apart, until Rey was left wandering in empty darkness once again. Then she saw, in front of her, Dom. He was running, seemingly from her, and disappeared downwards, as if…

She followed him, and where he disappeared, her foot made contact with an invisible staircase. She ran down, following him, leaning against the guardrail from exhaustion. “Dom…” She called after him, to no response. Her breath got more and more frantic and haggard the further down the staircase she ran, and she didn’t even realise that he had stopped running until she had already run straight through him.

***

Poe wasn’t sure at which point he’d lost sight of Rey or Ichabod. All he knew was that the forest was behind him and he was back to aimlessly wandering alone through an empty abyss, hoping to find an escape from this endless hell.

And so, he wandered.

He wandered until each new step he took buzzed painfully through aching feet, until nausea gripped his empty stomach, until his parched throat burned with thirst, until silence sounded like whispers, until he wasn’t sure if his vision was blurring or clear, until he wasn’t sure if he’d been in this Hallway for minutes, or hours, or days; until his eyelids fluttered and his body shook with exhaustion. Until his body fell, defeated, to the cold ground and he lay there, shivering, his knees against his chest, hearing and seeing absolutely nothing around him; all he could hear was blood rushing around his ears, his heart beating, and his quivering breath drawing.

That was when he heard a voice, a voice with more clarity than the whispers he had heard scattered around him for however long he’d been lost on his own. It was Rey’s voice, and all she said was his name. “Poe?!”

For a long moment, he wasn’t even sure that he’d heard it. He sat up and waited for her to speak again but hearing nothing he instead called out in a hoarse voice, “Rey, is that you?!”

He stood up again on sore feet, and the beat between his call and her response filled him with anxious thoughts but they were silenced with her voice again, saying “Poe, it's Rey! I'm coming!”

He called back with relief, “Oh, thank god, I thought I lost you.”

“Me too,” she yelled back.

There was a long pause and then Rey said with panic in her tone, “Poe, the door is gone. I don't know how we're gonna get out.”

He looked around, trying to match the direction and distance of her voice with a visual so that he could walk towards her, but all he saw was darkness. He couldn’t see Rey. “Rey, I can't see anything!”

She called back, “Yeah, me neither.”

Another pause between them, Poe anxiously tried to find Rey in his sightline with no luck.

He heard Rey’s voice again, something quiet that Poe couldn’t quite hear, then calling out to him again, “Poe, I'm coming to you, keep talking.”

He became more frantic with every turn of his head that only found more darkness in front of him. “I don't like this...”

“Neither do I.”

Then, he saw someone, a distance away, and he whispered sharply, “Wait…” before realizing it was not Rey, but Ichabod Snoke. And Snoke saw him, too. “Rey, he’s back, hurry!”

Ichabod was running towards Poe, the gap between them closing, and Poe still had no sight of Rey. If he couldn’t find her, he was going to have to run, losing the one person he’d found while he was in the Hallway.

And who knew how long it would be before he found someone again.

Rey’s voice whispered back to Poe, “Who’s back?”

And he couldn’t wait any longer for her to reach him, he had to run. Both feet limping, each frantic step prompting a fresh grimace. Throat burning. Heart pounding. He ran, and ran, and ran, all the while chased by a growling Ichabod Snoke, who yelled out menacingly, “I’m gonna getcha! I’m gonna getcha!!” He swung the axe at the empty air in front of him, tauntingly, playfully.

Then Poe heard from Ichabod’s direction a sudden _THUNK_! And he turned to see Ichabod’s body limp on the ground, and Ben standing over him, holding the axe. Dom was also unconscious, just in front of Ben. At the sight of his friends, Poe was overcome with a wave of relief. He limped towards his friend and said with a croak, “Ben…”

But suddenly he was torn away, the floor of the Hallway rapidly s t r e t c h i n g backwards until he was miles away in less than a moment and again he was alone, surrounded by empty darkness.

Poe fell to his knees and bellowed out a long scream of hopelessness.

No one responded.

***

Ben didn’t even give it a second thought. He saw Ichabod, in the flesh, chasing after Rey with an axe under the crimson spotlight and in an instant he found that he’d sprinted towards the man, knocking into him and taking the axe out of his hands before swiftly dealing a brutal blow to his temple with the handle. He had barely a moment to react before turning to see Dom behind him, also unconscious.

Ben knelt down to his friend and felt his neck, thankfully feeling a pulse. “Dom? Dom can you hear me?”

Dom’s eyelids fluttered awake and he sat up sharply, saying instantly, “Rey, it was Rey!” Dom looked up at Ben, quickly adding, “Ben, hi. It was Rey chasing me, just now.”

Ben, confused, “Rey? No, that was… It was Snoke. I just…”

He turned to gesture to Snoke’s body but saw it being pulled swiftly away into the darkness.

Dom continued frantically, “No, Ben, listen: I was being chased by some invisible thing. It wasn’t showing up on the cameras, it had no heat signature, but I could hear it. I heard her breathing and then she ran right through me and I felt it, I felt her. It was Rey, I know it. And she was a ghost.”

It was the first time that Ben had believed Dom telling him about a ghost. And it broke him.

***

After passing through Dom, Rey found herself falling through darkness. Or, floating. It was difficult to tell the pace of her descent with no visuals and no rush of air to discern velocity.

Looking downwards, towards her descent, Rey could see soft flashes of a muted grey that had the sporadic nature of lightning in a thunder cloud and seemed to get brighter and more intense the further Rey fell towards it. Even the low grey was a vibrant change to the abyssal black that her sight had accustomed to. Accompanying the flashes was a repetitive sizzling sound that reminded Rey of…

Sh

Shsh

Shshsh

Shshshsh

Shshshshsh

Shshshshshsh

Shshshshshshsh

Shshshshshshshsh

Shshshshshshshshsh

Rey reached out toward the flashing light below her and it buzzed against her hand. Her quaking breath filled with fright at the realization that she had become a ghost and she let out an awful scream of visceral terror. She cried out into the flashing void, “HELP ME!! I THINK I’M DEAD!!”

The flashing stopped and Rey cried, her chest heaving with uneven breath, her face wet with tears of horror. Her mind raced with thoughts of utter helplessness and hopelessness.

She was a ghost. She was a ghost, and she didn’t know if there was any way to fix it, to return to her normal self. She didn’t know if she’d ever see Ben, or Dom, or Poe, or Finn, or anyone else in her life ever again. She didn’t know if she would ever leave the Snoke House. This place that had tormented and tortured her for two harrowing days and nights was to be her eternal prison. She could think of no existence more horrifying.

She scrambled to blame herself, to look for a way that she could have avoided it. _If only I had seen that that wasn’t Ben before, if only I hadn’t gone back into the House, if only I hadn’t_ …

Another burst of flashes surrounded Rey–

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshs **Hello** hshs **spirits** shs **of** shsh **the** hshshs

Shshshs **Snoke** shshshs **House** hshshshsh **Once** s

Shsh **again** shshshshshs **I’m** shshshsh **Dom** shshs

Shshsh **the** **large** shs **man** shsh **is** hshshsh **Ben** shs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Rey was stunned into silence, trying to understand what she was hearing.

Shshshs **If** hshs **there’s** shsh **anything** hshs **you** s

Shshs **would** shshs **like** **to** hshs **say** hsh **to us** hshs

Shshs **anything** shs **you’d** **like** shshs **us to** shshshs

Shshs **know** shshsh **you** shshsh **can** shsh **use** hshs

Shsh **this** shshs **to** shshshs **communicate** shshshs

Shsh **with** hshs **us** shshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshs **Can** hs **you** hshsh **say** **our** shshsh **names**

Shshsh **back** **to** hshsh **us?** hshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshsh **Can you** sh **say** shshs **your** hshsh **name?**

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Rey was too stunned to speak. She wanted to, but she felt frozen, trying to process everything that was happening.

A different voice spoke through the flashes:

Shshshshshs **Do** hshs **you** shs **want** hsh **to** shshs

Shs **kill** hshs **us?** hshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Ben’s voice. Rey took a deep breath and reached out to the flashes, feeling the buzzing at her fingertips again. She spoke into the light, “Help me, please. I’m in the Hallway.”

The flashes were dimmer than the first time, she felt only a couple of her syllables connect with the buzzing pulses of light.

Shshshshshsh **Sorry** shshs **ghost,** hshs **what** hshs

Shsh **was** shsh **that?** shshshshshshshshshshshshs

Rey laughed. Another flood of tears rolled down her face.

Even through the fizzing static, she could hear the smirk in Ben’s voice, that adorable little smirk that drove her crazy. It had never been more important for him to hear her, and here he was doing that stupid smirk, cracking a joke. That’s all she was in this moment; that thing that he laughed off and goofed around at when they were filming. She wasn’t a voice in the static to him, she was just radio noise, pinging off at random. She’d heard his sardonic rant dozens of times about how ‘ _It’s flicking through a thousand channels a second, eventually it’s gonna hit something_ ’. _God_. What she would give not to be so desperately attracted to that huge dumbass.

Shshshs **We’re** hshsh **gonna** shsh **turn** shshshshs

Shshsh **this** hshshsh **thing** shshshshs **off soon** shs

Shshs **if** hshsh **there’s** shshs **anything** hshshshshs

Shsh **else** shshsh **you** shsh **need** hshs **to** hshs **say**

Shs **to** hshs **us** hshshs **please** shshs **do** hsh **so** shs

Shsh **now** hshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Shshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshs

Rey tried to compose herself and spoke into the flashes. “Ben, please. Please… I’m so afraid. It’s Rey! I’m so alone in here…”

The flashes stopped. The connection was severed. A long moment passed with the empty, noiseless abyss as her only company. She was unsure if she would ever experience any kind of sensation again.

***

Ben hadn’t said a word since Dom had told him that Rey was a ghost, and it had been nearly a full minute. Neither said anything, both individually troubled with what had happened. There was no argument over whether or not it was possible, all there was between them was stunned silence. Then, Ben snapped his fingers at Dom and said frantically, “The spirit box, do you have it?!”

Dom looked up at him, “I… I think so.”

“Give it!”

Ben spoke with stronger desperation and more vulnerability than Dom had ever heard from him. He swiftly pulled his backpack off his shoulders, unzipped the opening and fished around, pulling out the spirit box and handing it to Ben, who held it like one might hold a rare diamond.

Dom spoke timidly, unsure of Ben’s demeanor, “I hate that thing.”

Ben spoke back in a tone true to his words, “I don’t care.”

He switched it on.

***

The static roared to life. **|** Another burst of flashes appeared.

**|**

“Rey? Rey, can you hear me? Please, please hear me…” **|  
**

**|** “Ben! Ben, it’s me. I hear you. I hear you.” 

“Can you see me? I can’t see you." **|**

**|** "No, I can't see you either."

"Focus on my voice, Rey. You can find me, I know you can." **|**

**|** Rey focused on his voice. She thought of him, the way she felt when

**|** she was with him. That smirk. That stupid, amazing smirk. How it felt

**|** to be next to him. How important he made her feel.

**|**

And suddenly, he saw her. **|** And suddenly, she saw him. 

Among the darkness, between the emptiness, he saw her. **|** Among the flashes, between the light, she saw him. 

His eyes stung hot at the sight of her dusty form, glowing red. **|** "I see you. Ben, I see you!" Her voice cracking into a suppressed

**|** cry at the end.

Dom yelled out in fright, "Oh my god, Rey?!" **|** Rey's lip quivered, she was barely keeping herself from sobbing

**|** at Dom's fear of her ghostly form.

Ben showed no such fear. **|**

He reached out his hand to her. **|**

"Take my hand." **|**

**|** "I might hurt you. Ben, I don't know what will happen." 

"I don't care." **|**

He watched as she stepped closer to him, reaching out a cobweb hand. **|** She walked slowly towards him, reaching out her hand as 

**|** she got closer.

Then, **|** softly,

their **|** fingers

tou **|** ched.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear every time I go to write a new chapter my prepared outline juts out another chapter in length. The last three chapters were meant to be, maximum, 2 chapters. I dead set still haven't even reached the end of what my outline says is meant to happen in Chapter 9. Writing really just be like that sometimes.


	11. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew are faced with one last chance to escape.

And suddenly, there was a tremendous cracking sound like thunder that roared through the darkness, and Dom could see Rey standing with Ben, their hands touching gently.

For a moment, all that could be heard was Rey and Ben's heavy, relieved breath at the sight of each other. They came crashing together, like waves to the shore, in a tight embrace, Ben's hand tangled in her hair, her hands gripping tight at his back and her breath shaking. "I thought I was gone, I thought, I thought--"

"I know, Rey, I know. I know."

Dom stood and the two turned to him as he spoke, "Have either of you seen Poe?"

Rey answered, "I ran into him earlier, but we got separated."

A creaking sound cut through the silence, and among the darkness, the three could see a door opening, just a crack of light in the black.

They stared at it, not moving. Dom spoke first, “It could be a trap.”

Then Ben, “Or our only way out.”

Rey said what they all refused to say, “What about Poe?”

No one said anything for a moment, but Ben broke the silence, “Dom, you’re right. It's a trap.” He paused, for a short beat, considering something, then continued, “Everything this House does is deliberate. It has to be. It wants us to be afraid, and I don't know why... We only found each other because the House let us. If it wants us to get out of this Hallway without Poe, you can bet it's because it wants us to leave Poe behind, for some reason.” In the pause between these words and Ben's next, it was clear that the other two were in agreement with him. “We can't let the House win; we leave here with Poe, not before.”

A croaky voice came from behind the door, “Guys?” It was Poe. “Is it you?”

Ben, Dom, and Poe looked at each other. Dom, anxious, “Could still be a trap.”

Poe’s voice called back, “Guys it’s me. I’m on the other side of the door.”

The door swung open wider and the three could see the staircase of the House.

Ben called out to the voice, “Step into the doorway so we can see you.”

Poe appeared in the doorway. His eyes were wide and danced with chaos behind them, but he seemed otherwise unharmed. He spoke shakily, “Please.”

The three charged towards the doorway and finally, finally ran out of the Hallway, back into the House.

The door shut behind them. The four looked at each other, fear and relief crashing against the walls of their collective minds like waves on a cliff-face.

Dom looked at the glass-ridden floor, towards his shoes that lay at the door. “Shit.”

Without skipping a beat, Rey pounced across the floor, dodging glass with each careful step until she reached the doormat. Once there, she picked up Dom's and Poe's shoes and, just as carefully, ran them back. Dom and Poe quickly struggled to get their shoes on, then Dom nodded at Ben and Ben spoke with a tenacity that stirred Rey's churning emotions into action, “Now, let's get the fuck out of this House.”

They ran across the glass as fast as they could, making it to the door. Rey opened it, seeing again the storm outside that had brought her and Ben back to the House. They ran out to Poe’s car, Poe unlocking it and sliding into the driver’s seat.

He twisted the keys in the ignition, and they all felt the car purr to life. Rey closed her eyes and could feel the mechanical beast shuddering around her. She felt grounded. When she opened her eyes, she could focus on her surroundings, which were bright and open, a welcome reprieve from the enclosed darkness of the Hallway.

Poe gripped the wheel with one hand, released the handbrake and put the gear shift into drive with the other, then drove away from the Snoke House.

For a second, Rey glimpsed up at the House, and she could’ve sworn that in the windows there were several apparitions watching with intense eyes as the car drove away.

Long after they had left the haunted grounds, a small, yet loud paranoia shrieked in a corner of her mind: that the Hallway had not ended at the door, that it was merely generating the illusion of safety around them. She was rationally sure that they had escaped but still couldn’t rid herself of the idea that she would never feel entirely free of the Snoke House.

Her phone buzzed lightly in her pocket, she pulled it out to see a message.

Finn: how goes ghost house?

***

As they were leaving Elmwood, Dom called Luke and recounted their experiences in the Hallway. They urged him to stay away from the House, to which Luke politely protested, but said to them that he’d stay safe before ending the call.

After a long period of silence, Poe spoke. “I don’t know how long I was in there. It felt like days. Somehow, I was never starving, just hungry. Never parched, just thirsty. It was sustaining me somehow, like it wanted me to stay alive, just walking in there. Aimlessly. Endlessly. It could’ve trapped me there. I don’t know why it wanted me to find you again, I don’t know why it didn’t just kill me. Every time I got close to you, it would pull me away, like the floor stretched away underneath me and suddenly you would be miles away and I’d be alone again.

When it let me out, I thought I had been in there for a month, but I came out to the same storm we’d left in. My phone clock had only passed ten minutes, but I’d gone through days and nights. I’d gotten tired and slept and woken hours later, and walked for more hours, and slept again. Over and over and over… I _know_ I was in there for longer, I know I was. I took videos in the Hallway, but they were all deleted when I got out, it was as though we were never in there.”

A pause fell on the group and no one dared speak to fill it. Poe continued, “That House is alive. Or there’s some spirit that resides there, or it’s some otherworldly _thing_. There is no amount of science or logic that can undo that, or reason around it. Whatever it is, it’s beyond whatever we define as possible.”

No one knew how to respond, and none of them said anything after that for a long while.

When the sky started going dark, they pulled into a Motel and booked a family suite for the night. They were all exhausted beyond exhaustion, but none of them had any desire to sleep. Once they had gotten everything inside the room, Ben broke the silence brashly, saying “Dom, get the camera on.”

Dom furrowed his brow in Ben’s direction, “What?”

“I don’t intend to repeat myself.”

Dom whipped out his phone and started filming Ben.

“Alright Ben, we’re all ears; what’d you want to say?”

“Well, here we are, _not_ in the Snoke House. We chickened out of our last night because–” He punctuated his pause with a sardonic eyebrow raise that commanded the room, “–That House is _fucking_ haunted.”

With that, the four erupted with laughter that had as much to do with their collective relief as it did Ben’s sarcastic charm.

***

They crowded around Rey’s laptop and watched _Tangled_ instead of attempting to sleep. Rey texted Finn throughout the movie, not telling him the full extent of everything, but promising to meet him for coffee once they were home.

_Home_. In her ugly, beautiful city. Where boring, concrete greys twisted around each other in strict, stalagmitic boxes. Where silence was as elusive as air unclouded by smog and smoke. Where peace was rare, but boredom was rarer. An edged nervousness crept around Rey’s longing for her busy home city, an anxiousness that whispered loudly whenever she dared to think of home; would she ever truly feel home again, or would she be, forever, haunted? Even if she wasn’t still trapped in the Hallway, which she couldn’t be sure that she wasn’t, she still felt that a part of her had been left there.

Once the movie ended, long after the room had lapsed into a still silence, Rey got up from her bed. Not even bothering to change out of her pyjamas, she slipped on her socks and black Converse knock-offs. She took Poe’s car keys and the room key, then quietly slipped away, into the night.

Closing the door behind her, she was immediately hit by the autumn chill as she walked quickly towards Poe’s car, soft rain continuing from the storm. She stubbornly tried to stop shivering, only slightly succeeding. Unlocking the car and climbing into the driver’s seat, she noticed the motel room door opening and Ben stepping through the doorway, his eyes locked on hers. He closed the door behind him.

Instantly, her jaw tightened with stubborn fierceness. He sauntered up to the car and knocked on the passenger side window. She didn’t respond.

He opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat. “What are you doing?” The words came out of her with surprising heat.

“Well, I could ask you the same.” His words rolled out of him with velvet ease.

“I’m going for a drive.”

“On your own? Not wise.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fucking come with me then, I’m not bothered.” Rey turned the key in the ignition and felt the buzz of the car coming to life flowing around her.

“ _Rey_.”

_How does he manage to so perfectly balance a tone of firmness and gentleness?_

Finally, she met his gaze, but it was so intense that she immediately retreated to looking straight ahead again.

He continued, still balancing firm and gentle, “You shouldn’t drive. It’s nearly one a.m. You could fall asleep at the wheel.” She didn’t respond, he continued, “It’s not safe.”

“I don’t much care.” It annoyed her endlessly that his tone managed to be so perfect and hers came out so abrasive.

He shook his head, letting more anger come out this time, “Don’t be so careless.”

“Oh, I’m _careless_ , am I?”

“You are! Getting too drunk to stand, charging into the House with reckless abandon for your own safety–”

“I saved them!”

“Who was gonna save you?! Did you even think about that?!”

A tense pause lapsed between them.

“Ben, I don’t need you to be my _savior_.”

“Well, someone has to.”

“Oh, stop. Just stop. Look, I’ve got shit under control, okay? I know what I’m doing. I don’t need you to hold my hand.”

“You shouldn’t drive.”

“Ben, thank you, really, thank you for saving me. Thank you for taking care of me. But we’re fine now. I don’t need saving anymore.”

Another tense pause.

“Now are you going to let me drive, or not?”

He strapped the passenger seatbelt over him.

“I can’t stop you, can I?”

Handbrake. Gear shift.

Rey spoke with a quiet smirk, “One day you’ll learn to stop trying.”

And with that, Rey reversed out and drove away from the motel carpark. Against his own will, Ben chuckled.

Amber streetlights passed overhead in a meditative pattern. Electric wires snaked between poles. Majestic forestry, humble houses, empty gas stations, and small shopping centres passed by them on a long, wordless, aimless drive. Rey took roundabouts, U-turns, dead-ends, and empty carparks on a whim. The road, the wheel, and the pedals were her only tethers to reality. She drove with a singular, grounded focus. Though her route had not been pre-determined, each move she made felt like it had called her towards it, as though her choices were already made. When she eventually pulled over onto a gravel slip lane beside some forestry, far from the last signpost of civilization that they had seen, Rey slowed to a stop, shifting the gear into park, clipping down the handbrake, and turning the ignition off. She looked straight ahead, daring her eyesight to adjust to the darkness far in front.

Whatever purpose had laid this anarchic driving route in front of her had quietened and passed through her, and with that sensation came a wave of cathartic, spiritual release. Rey had fallen back into her body, and she was hyper-aware of herself, the car encased around her and where it met her body at the seat. And Ben in the passenger seat. Looking at her. Their gazes met with the force of a lightning strike. Thunder boomed in the distance.

A long period of wordless silence passed between them, sitting in the still car with nothing but the ambiance of the storm outside and their tender breath to fill it.

In the Snoke House, sharing a bed, their closeness had felt like an easy answer to their fear. It was easy for both of them to let themselves lean on each other, hold each other, care for each other; it was easier to feel that they were both each other’s stronghold than to admit to themselves that _they_ were vulnerable. Now they were safe, in a world that made sense, where the ground was even and there was no real need to lean on each other anymore. They sat in silence, gazes lingering, breath steady, thoughts haunted, neither moving for what could have been minutes, hours, days, or years. Rey’s thoughts simmered and bubbled with anxious ambiguity until, in a moment of pure clarity and perfect harmony, their faces drifted together, their eyes closed, and, softly, their lips met.

It was a kiss that roared through them, that sang loudly and crackled tenderly, that flowed effortlessly and pulsed steadily. It was flame and sea, land and air, desperate and breathless. Rey felt his hands cradling her face, her own hands gripped his shirt and pulled him tighter into her. It could’ve lasted anywhere between moments and minutes. When the kiss broke, their faces lingered. She felt his hot breath on her lips for another endless moment, then they drifted back apart. Rey faced forward, turned the ignition, shifted into drive, pulled the handbrake off, and revved loudly away from the quiet spot. A roaring, primal, feminine beast pounded through her like pure electricity, the spirit of a vixen howling through her.

***

The wolf’s howl within Ben didn’t quieten the entire drive back to the motel, which, thankfully, was much less sporadic than the earlier drive. Even once Rey had parked back in the motel carpark, or once they’d reached the door of their suite, the howl had not subsided but was, in fact, roaring louder than before and he instinctively grabbed her arm and twirled her into another powerful kiss; his hand twisting in her hair and grabbing her waist, her arms wrapped tightly behind his neck.

No matter the awfulness of the circumstances under which they had been brought so close, the impossible terrors of the Snoke House had allowed for Ben to believe in other such impossible things. When Rey’s lips were hot on his, Ben could’ve believed that there were such things as destiny, and fate, and external forces outside of time and space that had decided that they would be together before they were even scattered stardust. Their kisses, their union, however unbelievable it may have felt to him just days earlier, felt predestined. For, if ghosts and demons were real, why not something as harmless as true love?


	12. Belief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey catches up with Finn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW! Warning!

The long drive that transitioned gradually from green country to grey buildings made Rey feel strangely at ease. Finally, she was beginning to feel as though she was reconnecting to the world away from the House. Rey was texting Finn during the drive home and had arranged to catch up for coffee when they arrived back in New York. They met at their favorite coffee shop and finally, Rey told him the harrowing story of their time in the Snoke House.

“No way. That’s insane! I don’t believe it.” was his first reaction.

Through working on _Paranormal Investigations: Unsolved_ , Rey had heard many ghost stories and had come to notice that other than the specters themselves, what all of these stories shared was skepticism. The person who claimed to witness something supernatural was never believed, Rey used to believe for a fair reason, though now she felt the sting of being doubted in spite of her telling the truth and she understood how those people must have felt. It struck her that this wouldn’t be the only skepticism that she would face in trying to tell her story of the Snoke House, nor would it be the most severe.

“Finn, I wouldn’t lie to you. This happened. You do believe me, don’t you?”

“I, I don’t… Rey, it’s…” He exhaled, paused, then continued, “I guess I believe you, but you understand that it’s… I mean, the Hallway?”

“I know, it sounds… Fantastical. But it happened. It happened, and I was scared– I was so scared!”

“Did you take any photos or video at all?”

“We all tried to, but every time we would either the ghost would disappear from the video or the video would just be deleted, as though it were never there.”

“Well, that’s convenient.”

“Really!”

“No, no, I– I can believe that you saw _something_ , that some of this happened, but some of it is just too crazy.”

“I know, Finn. But please, _please_ believe me. I need someone who believes me right now.”

Finn saw that his friend was vulnerable, and suddenly he felt a sharp prickle of guilt. This clearly meant a lot to her. It meant more than his pride and cynicism, at least. He chewed his lip and then smiled softly, before saying “Okay Rey. I believe you.”

“All of it?”

“All of it.”

She smiled back, but behind her smile, she was hurt. Nothing could take back the moment of Finn’s doubt and in her mind, she felt herself trying to run from her disappointment in her friend who she so desperately needed right now, trying to run from the upset and frustration that came with being disbelieved when she knew she was telling the truth, but more than anything, she was trying to run from feeling alone, even with her friend.

***

When Ben walked through his apartment door for the first time since his stay in the Snoke House, a wave of relief washed over him. He walked around the familiar space as though he were seeing it for the first time. Each room gave him a renewed joy, as none greeted him with a door that didn’t belong or an inch of impossible space or a dusty figure staring back at him.

The only surprise he found was his instinct upon feeling such joy; to message Rey. Only, when he pulled out his phone, he was struck with the thought that Rey would probably appreciate some time to herself after such an experience. He thought it best not to bother her, putting his phone back in his pocket.

He decided to go for a walk down to the park nearby, so he grabbed his keys and left his apartment again. Ben felt so profoundly alive strolling through the park. Seeing the sky and having a clear view of his surroundings was certainly a welcome change. After a while he wandered out to his local library and picked up a book at random from the non-fiction section – something about the history of the American subway rail system – and borrowed it, taking it back to the park, where he sat down at the base of a tree and began to read. Ben often challenged himself to borrow books with a seemingly boring or inane subject matter because often he found that they could be deceptively fascinating.

He stayed under the tree until well into the afternoon, and he only noticed when he looked up from his book that the sky was growing darker. He fished a receipt out of his wallet and used it as a bookmark, then began the short walk home.

When he closed his apartment door behind him and flicked the lights on, he suddenly noticed that he was hungry. This was fairly typical for him, spending all day reading and never noticing that it had been several hours since he had last eaten. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, preparing to order delivery, but saw a message from Rey, sent half an hour ago.

Rey: Hey- are you busy?

Ben looked at the message, and before he even realized he was typing he had replied,

Ben: No, what’s up?

_What’s up? I sound like an idiot._

**Seen.**

…

…

Rey: Wanna grab dinner?

Ben smiled, then typed back,

Ben: Yes, have somewhere in mind?

Rey: The pizza place on 6th—you know it?

Ben: Think so. Proud Joey’s?

Rey: Yes! How soon can you be there?

Ben: 20 minutes

Rey: Brilliant- see you there!

Ben looked around at his apartment again, his unwavering smile still stuck to him. But suddenly there was something unsettling about the stillness, the quietness. The loneliness. Suddenly it felt as though he might be back in some Secret Room simulation of a familiar place, and Ben’s heart started racing. He quickly turned and reached for the door, finding the handle at his hand. Ben quickly ran out the door and shut it behind him, breathing deeply, trying to calm himself. He was frustrated at himself for getting so worked up over something so irrational.

But was it irrational? The Snoke House had certainly done far more unbelievable things. _Stop it._

He had slid down against his door, sitting on the floor in the doorway.

_Stop scaring yourself. You’re safe. You’re home._

***

Rey sat at a table at _Proud Joey’s_ waiting for Ben for 20 minutes after they had agreed to meet, with still no sign of him. Insecurities boiled at the back of her mind, _don’t even tell me I put on this makeup and this dress for nothing_. It was a lovely yet simple yellow dress that she had worn to Finn’s 21st a few months back, one of her favorites in her wardrobe. She felt very pretty when she wore it. Rose, Finn’s lovely girlfriend, had commented that Rey looked ‘ _like sunshine_ ’, and immediately after Rose had said it Rey had felt invincible. When she wore this dress, though it spoke to grace and gentleness, it made her feel elegant, powerful, and _fun_. She would not wear this dress in vain. Her phone buzzed; finally, a message from Ben.

Ben: Sorry, I got held up. Be there in a second.

Rey’s first thought when she saw Ben walking into _Proud Joey’s_ was that he looked sickly. Like, he looked like he’d been sick. His face was pale, more so than usual. His eyes seemed sunken and irritated. He seemed twitchy. Ironically, he looked like he’d seen a ghost. When he reached her table, he smiled, looking down at her. “Hi, Rey.”

“Ben, are you okay?”

“I’m– I’m fine.”

“Are you? You look…”

“What?”

“You, just…” She exhaled and finally took notice of his outfit, which was a well-fitting black suit with a dark blue shirt. Rey smiled back at him. “It’s good to see you.”

He nodded, “Yeah. It’s good to see you.”

She could see a vulnerability in his eyes that she had only seen when he told her about his father.

Rey spoke softly, “Ben, you’re scaring me. Don’t shut me out. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Rey, I just…” But he realized that he couldn’t lie to her. “I just freaked myself out in my apartment. It was stupid. It was stupid.”

“No, Ben, it’s not stupid. I did the same thing. I just… I don’t know, I looked around and I just got this feeling, like acid in my veins. My brain was screaming, I felt like–”

“Like you were back in the Snoke House. Like you never left.”

Rey nodded.

“It’s fine, Rey. I’m fine. Can we talk about something else? Please?”

“Absolutely,” Rey said, looking around the restaurant. “Have you been here before?”

“No, I assume you have?” Immediately his demeanor had shifted, with each second he was getting closer to the charming Ben Solo she knew.

“It’s only one of my favorite places in the city.”

“One of your favorite places?”

“Yeah, it’s that good.”

“Must be some pizza. Do you want to order for me? I’m sure you know all the best dishes.”

Rey perked up with excitement with that and started speaking quickly, gesturing at the menu, “The garlic focaccia is, oh my god, to die for. We’ll get one of those. And then, uhhh, oh! The goat’s cheese pizza– Do you like goat’s cheese? Some people don’t, but. Oh, you’re making fun of me.”

“No, I’m–” he laughed. “Okay, yeah. I was making fun of you. But it was pretty funny.”

Rey grinned. “Dick.”

Ben laughed.

They didn’t really talk much once their pizzas came, both were starving and were very happy to shovel food into their mouths without much conversation or pretense of politeness.

Ben had to admit, Rey’s food recommendations were two for two so far. The pizzas were both perfect, and by the end of the meal, they were both pleasantly full. “Well, Miss Rey, how do you feel about a walk?”

“A walk would be lovely.”

Ben insisted on paying for the meal, much to Rey’s protest, but as they were walking out the door and onto the city street, she eventually resolved that she would pay for their next date.

“Oh, so this _is_ a date?”

A pause, Rey wasn’t sure how to answer.

Ben continued with a debonair smirk, “I’m kidding. I knew this was a date, Miss Rey.”

He kissed her on the cheek playfully.

Smiling gleefully and blushing, Rey snipped “Miss Rey prefers to talk about herself in first person, not third. And what’s with all this Miss Rey business?”

“I don’t know, feels gentlemanly.”

She snickered, “If you say so.”

A pleasant moment of silence elapsed between the two, before Ben said softly, “I didn’t say anything when I saw you, but you look very beautiful. It’s a very nice dress.”

She chuckled nervously, “Oh, thank you.”

Ben switched tones quickly, asking disarmingly directly, “So, why New York?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, of any place in the world, why here?”

“I dunno. I’ve always lived here.”

“Hold on, that’s not a New York accent.”

Rey smiled. “No, it’s not. My foster parents were a British couple.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

“Anyway. I’ve always lived here. Haven’t really got enough saved to move.”

“But you would move if you could?”

Rey thought for a moment before continuing, “I dunno. Maybe. Or at least travel a bit more. Y’know, that’s my favorite part of this job, we travel around a lot.”

“Lots of hours in the car.”

“I like driving. And I like being in a car. It feels safe, not sure why.”

“Hm.”

“What about you? Why here?”

“I heard the people are assholes, so I thought I’d fit right in.”

Rey guffawed.

“Oh, I’m glad you liked that.”

“Really, though. Why here?”

“I was just looking for a change, New York seemed the most different from California.”

“California? Oh, I don’t think I could’ve seen that coming.”

“Enough about me, I feel like you already know too much about me, and yet I know next to nothing about you.”

“What’s there to know?”

“Oh, you tell me, Miss Rey.”

She chuckled. “Well, I’ll spare you the sad orphan story, but… There’s that. And, uhh, well, I hated school, apart from meeting Finn.”

“Finn?”

“Oh, he’s my best friend. Since middle school. Actually, that’s a funny story. So, there was this kid, Trent Slater. He was a total wanker.”

“He’s got a wanker-ish name.”

“Right?! So, he was picking on Finn. Saying awful things, really laying into him. It was starting to get really heated. Now, it’s the first day of middle school. I don’t really know anyone yet, and I wouldn’t say I was particularly good at making friends, but I did know that it’s important to stand up for what you believe in. And I did. By socking Trent Slater firmly in the jaw.”

Ben laughed. “Nice.”

“Oh, it was pretty good. Bruised my knuckles and everything. Finn and I have been best friends since that punch.”

“Some punch. What’s Finn like?”

“Oh, he’s delightful. You’d get along well. He’s very funny, not always on purpose. In fact, usually not. He’s very caring, very kind. And loyal. He’s always stuck up for me, even when he should be focusing on other things.”

“Where does he work?”

“He’s a DJ at a club nearby.”

“Is he working tonight?”

“Yeah, actually.”

“You wanna pay him a visit?”

Rey smiled at Ben sweetly, “You want to meet my best friend on our first date?”

Ben shrugged, “Why not?”

“Well, for one I don’t really see you as the clubbing type.”

“I guess I’m a man of surprises. Then again, I’ve never actually been clubbing.”

“Oh, Mister Ben, I am not surprised at all. Come on, I’ll take you to _The Resistance_ – that’s his club.”

They walked a few busy blocks to _The Resistance_. Inside, it was dark and crammed full of people. The bar and the walls were lit with neon blue, and lasers of all different colours flashed and danced around the room in time with the pumping music, which was oppressively loud. “Oh my god,” Ben said as soon as they had crossed the threshold into the club, but he was completely unheard by Rey. Rey skipped up onto her tiptoes in her black Converse knockoffs to reach Ben’s face height and said closer to his ear, “Bit loud, eh?”

He leaned towards her ear and said simply, “Yeah.”

Rey spoke in his ear again, “Bit too loud I think.”

“You wanna stay?”

“I think we’ll go. I’ll message Finn later to tell him we swung by.”

“Alright.”

They turned out and left _The Resistance_ as quickly as they had arrived.

Back out on the street again, they looked around the city surrounding them aimlessly.

“Well, Miss Rey. Where to now?”

“I know just the place.”

***

“Miss Rey, if I’m not mistaken, you’ve taken me to an apartment building.”

“Ah, but not just any apartment building.”

“What makes it special, then?”

“This is _my_ apartment.”

“What, the whole building?”

She laughed, “No, no. Come on.”

She led him inside, into the elevator, pressing the button for the top floor.

“The penthouse suite? Romantic.”

She chuckled. “We’re not going to my unit. Yet.”

The elevator doors closed and took them up. Rey turned to Ben and suddenly noticed how close they were standing. They were much closer than she thought they were. His gaze came down to meet hers and their eyes stared hungrily into each others’. <Ding, ding!> The elevator doors opened.

“Here we are?” Ben said. Rey stepped out of the elevator, leading Ben.

“Not quite.”

She walked towards a staircase. Ben followed.

***

The roof overlooked the city from just less than halfway up the height of the tallest buildings. The lights of the city shone brightly up into a dark sky that only twinkled with the barest of stars. The two wandered up to the edge of the roof and leaned against the railing, looking out at the city.

“Rey… It’s beautiful.”

“Sometimes I think so. Sometimes I think it’s ugly. It’s kind of both, isn’t it? Ugly beautiful.”

“What’s ugly about it?”

“Just all the blocky concrete, the smog, and smoke. No stars, I mean… I’d take a forest out in the middle of nowhere with a good starry night over any city, anywhere. But still. There’s something about that ugliness that is, in itself, beautiful. It’s not all bad.”

“Ugly beautiful.” Ben said with a tone of agreement, “I get it.”

Rey looked up at Ben’s face and there was a moment where she saw his blissful elatedness as he looked out at the city before he noticed she was watching and turned to look at her. And before they even noticed their faces drifting closer, they were kissing greedily; breathing hot and heavily, bodies leaning into each other, hands gripping tight and groping fiercely. There was no gentleness in this kiss, only passion, and power, and lust. They kissed with desperate want and fiery need.

When they finally tore themselves off each other, their stare filled with sin, their breath heavy, their hearts pounding, all they could think was how badly they wanted to let themselves get carried away with each other. Rey’s unit was a short elevator trip away, but Ben could just as easily have her right there and then on the roof under the dark, starless night. Ben said with his classic smirk, “Hell of a first date.”

“It certainly has been.”

“Has been?”

Rey smiled and bit her lip. “Well, Mister Ben.”

He chuckled. “Well indeed, Miss Rey.”

He grabbed her and kissed her again, this kiss much more romantic and calmer, but still powerful. Rey had to go on her tiptoes and lean into his body to match his height, and that alone made her ache with desire. Unable to wait a moment longer, she slowly, gently took his wrist in her hand and put it at her inner thigh, pulling upwards just slightly to guide him– _oh fuck_. Rey let out a soft whimper of hot breath against his lips as she felt his hand press against her underwear, teasing into her. Their eyes fluttered open and he saw that pleading look in her pretty brown eyes. He didn’t stand a chance. His left hand slid up her other thigh, joining his right hand at the waistband of her underwear.

Ben’s kisses fluttered softly down her neck, transitioning into nibbles at her collarbone. He knelt down and kissed from her knee, slowly upwards, pulling down on her waistband with his hands as his kisses worked up, under that pretty yellow dress, eventually meeting in the middle with her panties halfway down her thighs and his tongue pressing gingerly into her hot cunt.


	13. Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Dom meet to discuss the future of the show.

A week following the filming of the third season finale of Paranormal Investigations: Unsolved, Dom and Ben met in a coffeeshop to discuss the future of the show. They spent close to half of their coffees circling around the important discussion before Ben finally kicked it off. “Well. We found ghosts. A definitively, demonstrably, irrrefutably haunted house. What the hell do we do now?”

Dom raised his eyebrows and nodded slightly. “Well, do we want to continue? I think that’s our first question.”

“And quite possibly the hardest.”

“Quite.”

“I do think that the Snoke House is… _Unique_ in its extremity.”

“I think so, too. I mean, the amount of other locations we’ve been to that claim to be haunted, none of them come near the Snoke House’s… level of supernatural energy.”

“Bad vibes.”

Dom chuckled. Ben smirked, then continued, “I have to wonder why that House has so much supernatural power. I mean, if we are to continue, I think that one way could be in discussing possible explanations or theories for hauntings.”

“That’s an interesting idea.”

“A scientific dissection of the supernatural, of sorts.”

“Sounds a bit more involved than ghost hunting.”

“I think head office would really go for an expansion like that.”

“Oh, I agree.” Dom paused, considering. “The other thing I was thinking would be to refocus to aliens.”

“We could certainly do that as well.”

“I think you’re right. I think we pitch the scientific expansion and also that largely the show would continue as it always has. We’d still be doing ghost hunting, because our question would shift from ‘are ghosts real?’ to ‘are there ghosts _here_?’. ‘Here’ being wherever we were investigating in that episode.”

“And on top of that, if this place _is_ haunted, how? And why?”

“So, you do wanna do this?”

“I do.”

“Good, because it sounds freakin’ cool!”

Ben smiled. “It does.”

They both sipped their coffees, feeling inspired, brains whirring with potential and their own scientific curiosity.

“So, Ben.” Dom continued. “In a couple days we’ll meet back at head office to record the studio sections.”

“Yes.”

“I think we should make it our goal in the next day or so to meet with head office to discuss this idea, because I think it would be good to include a teaser, of sorts, in the wrap-up section of the video.”

“Good idea.”

“Are you free tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

“I think let’s both come up our own ideas of ways we would implement this scientific angle, and we’ll meet here again tomorrow to come up with a collaborative pitch to take to head office.”

“Sounds good.”

They downed the rest of their coffees without much else to say, then left the coffeeshop. Both of their minds were buzzing and alive with curiosity. Dom was eager to get to a word document and hammer out a pitch, while Ben was eager to get to the library and pore over the shelves for anything credible that linked the supernatural to the scientific.

***

“He _what_?!”

“Keep your voice down Finn!” Rey said through laughter, avoiding the collective gaze of the rest of the café.

“On the roof?!”

“It was so. Fucking. Good.”

“Jesus, Rey, I mean… The roof?!”

“On the roof!”

“Fucking legendary. Absolutely fucking legendary. And you didn’t get caught?”

“Well, as far as I know.”

“Fucking legendary.”

“Oh, it _was_.”

“Who is this guy?”

“Um, so, funny story.”

“What? Who is it?”

“You know that guy I work with who I told you is always just, kinda annoying?”

“Oh, you mean Smarmy Solo? WAIT.”

Rey gave Finn a look that indicated that his thought trail was leading to a correct guess.

“How?!”

“It was the House! With everything that happened there we… Got closer. We even had to share a bed because of, like, if something happened, I was meant to film it.”

“They didn’t have twin beds in the ghost house?”

“Not as far as I know.”

“So, what, you shared a bed for two nights and that did it?”

“Oh, it was more than that. I mean, we talked a lot. We learned a lot about each other. And then just… Somewhere along the way, we were just… Taking care of each other. And I liked it.”

“Clearly.” Finn smirked. Rey smiled. “As long as he’s kind to you, then I’m happy.”

“He is.”

“I’m glad.”

“We tried to come to see your set last night, by the way.”

“Oh, really? What do you mean ‘tried’?”

“It was too bloody loud! It’s a miracle you can even hear your music anymore, honestly.”

“Hey, Beethoven was deaf.”

“I’m sure Beethoven would approve of his name being invoked to defend your doof-doof.”

“Hey!” Finn said, faux-offended. Rey chuckled. Finn continued, “I still can’t believe… On the roof, oh my _god_.”

“I know!”

***

Ben had found exactly the book he was looking for and was enjoying it in the same way he always did; out in the sunshine with his back against a tree. Aptly titled _Scientific Theory Regarding Supernatural Phenomena_ _by Professor Ben Kenobi_ , the book was rather short and to the point about everything Ben was looking for, if a little flowery in its language. He had a small notebook with him, penning his thoughts as they occurred to him throughout reading the short book, both on how these theories could be explored in the future of the show, but more importantly, to Ben, how these theories could be applied to the Snoke House.

_One of the more common theories of the supernatural is that a place of heavy association with human suffering, either en masse or of an intense degree in a single individual, would be left with a cosmic imprint; an echo of grief that stains the earth where a great injustice was left unresolved._

_We see this notion crop up all throughout human history, it binds many myths and old wive’s tales about ghosts and other such spectres. The shared concept of the wailing woman is one such example._

_This is the ghostly archetype of a woman wronged by circumstance; often by the hand of her husband, or through the loss of a child; the woman will linger in her place of death long after her passing, and people would claim to have heard her wailing._

_Interestingly, the archetype of the wailing woman is common throughout almost all cultures which observe ghosts as a spiritual or legendary concept, centuries before these cultures interacted with one another._

_As for theories on how human suffering would leave such a cosmic imprint, there aren’t many, and those there are are grounded in what closer amounts to science fiction or high fantasy than scientific fact. As with many ‘scientific’ theories regarding the supernatural, they tend to rely on a field of science currently unbeknownst to us. Nevertheless, I will detail these theories, as abridged as I can manage, to the best of my understanding and ability, in the hopes that one day they will be relevant to resolving what is currently unknown._

The theories themselves were mundanely bogged down in theoretical scientific minutia, but the core of them; that one or multiple people’s intense sorrow would trigger a powerful urge towards cosmic resolution, allowing the imprint of a dead soul to remain in a limited radius of the place of death; seemed both compelling and believable when referring to the Snoke House and trying to determine the reason behind its intense hauntings.

The Snoke House was a place of unique suffering. It was a place where powerful negative emotions were burned into the history of the manor at every stage; where from the Crane family ‘witchcraft massacre’, to the murder of Elizabeth Snoke, to the murder-suicide of Padmé and Anakin Christensen; each incident was of potent enough sorrow to conjure a spirit, let alone the accumulation of all three. Perhaps this accumulation of sorrow alone would be enough to cause the impossible degree of supernatural interference in the House, if nor for the additional spectre which had revealed itself to Ben, referring to itself as simply ‘The Beast’. Whether this ‘Beast’ was an actual incarnation of ‘the devil’, Ben was unsure. It had cryptically answered to this exact question “yes _and_ no; it matters not”.

Ben had thought much on this strange response, trying to decode different interpretations of the answer. How can something simultaneously be both the Devil and _not_ the Devil?

Thankfully, Professor Kenobi discussed demonic hauntings later in the book, saying:

_Demons are currently understood to be a different presence from ghosts. Descriptions of demons in comparison to ghosts will differentiate the entities with the distinction that while ghosts are the supernatural imprint of deceased human souls, demons are 1) not deceased, but immortal or otherwise timeless beings, 2) Not human, but some otherworldly entity that is not currently understood on this plane of existence, and 3) Not native to this plane of existence, but hedonistic wanderers who belong to another plane and only interact with this world through supernatural weak points in this plane's barrier between itself and what we shall refer to as the **spiritual plane**._

_Again, it must be noted that the mere concept of demons’ existence relies on several scientific understandings that would currently be considered fictional or speculative. However, for any one element of demonology or other supernatural studies to be considered truthful, or partially truthful, many elements of speculation rely on many others in a functional ecosystem of unproven theories. It is this fact that has led to the unfortunate discrediting of supernatural studies in the scientific community as being too grounded in the cross-section of utterly unbelievable and unproven._

_One of these such theories is thought-manifestation, which is a concept by which a ritual conductor can bring their desires into existence simply with powerful thought focused by strong intent in a ritual that connects the conductors to the spiritual plane on a communicative basis. The theory of thought-manifestation is relevant to demonology because it is theorized that with the ritual conductor’s connection to the spiritual plane, they could use thought-manifestation to strengthen a demon's force, if they so desired. In this way, demonology connects another theoretical path known as a “tulpa"._

_A tulpa is a being or object that is brought into existence and is fed by thought manifestation. To apply more liberal conjecture, a ritual conductor could, in theory, use thought-manifestation to conjure a demon into being in the form of a tulpa, and use further rituals to feed the demon's strength, possibly even bringing the demon across the planes and into the physical world. It is unclear if this thought experiment implies whether or not the demon existed before the tulpa ritual, or if the tulpa ritual conjured the demon, or if somehow both are true and the tulpa ritual conjured into being a demon that has, paradoxically, always existed. The timeless nature of demons is such that any or all could be true, assuming, again, that demons themselves are true._

_Additionally, a concerning implication of this theory is that simply by discussing demons in this text and presenting them to you, the reader, your own interpretation of a demon may manifest that idea as a tulpa, and if you fear the demon, then your fear, through thought-manifestation, would feed it. That fear, once struck, becomes very difficult to remove. Even if you attempted to believe that the demon was benign or even friendly in an attempt to thought-manifest a weakness into it, by virtue of only doing so out of fear of the demon's strength, in the field of thought-manifestation where it is the intent of the thought that matters most, if you are motivated by fear, then that, too, would feed the demon._

Ben was caught between closing the book out of frightened repulsion and morbidly continuing through fearful curiosity. The notion that fearing ‘the Beast', whatever it was, would _feed_ it, no matter how far he was from the Snoke House, terrified him. Moreover, the fact that every single theory that the book presented for the existence or strengthening of supernatural phenomena could be in some way applied to the Snoke House had frightful implications. If considering the theory that the supernatural relies on some codependent ecosystem wherein all of the theories presented are in some way true, it was possible, therefore, with all of these theories working together throughout the history of the Snoke House, that the Snoke House was one of, if not the most concentrated epicenter of cosmic, supernatural power in existence.

***

“Well, guys, this is great. These are all great ideas. Obviously, it all depends on how this season goes when it drops, but if the finale is as exciting as you guys have been saying, I’m sure the budget for the next season will be able to cover these ideas. Good work.”

Ben felt a strange disconnect from his boss, Jackson Cole, describing the most viscerally terrifying two days of Ben’s life as simply the ‘exciting’ finale of their internet show, as though Ben and Dom had planned the events of the Snoke House to be a compelling episode, rather than being just something genuinely horrifying that they had happened upon. Still, it’s not like he could know better. As far as Jackson was concerned, that _was_ all that the Snoke House was.

“Y’know, I’m thinking now, with all this stuff, the scientific angle, exploring _how_ ghosts and demons and stuff work, maybe you could do return episodes to previous locations? Go back and see if they’re still haunted, dig at them from the new angle.”

Ben spoke quickly, “Maybe, uhm… I’d, I’d just like to be clear, uh, none of us want to go back to the Snoke House though. We’ll go back to any other place, but that House is gonna be a resounding ‘no’.”

“Oh. Really? That’s a shame. I think you’d get a good finale episode in a couple seasons time of a return to the Snoke House.”

“I’m sure it would be good content, but honestly, it’s dangerously haunted. And you know if I say that that I mean it.”

“Well, I’m disappointed, but I’ll live. You sound like you’ve got a good handle on how to move the show forward, so, I’ll trust you. Good work. Call sheets for the studio shoot should be out soon.”

“Thank you.”

Dom spoke up, “Thanks Jackson.”

Ben and Dom collected their things and left the office.

In the elevator, Dom said to Ben in a low voice, “I hope that Rey and Poe are both as keen as us to keep it going.”

Ben’s thoughts dwelled on Rey as Dom continued. “I hope that they’ll join us. I think they will, don’t you?”

“Uh, sure. I think so.”

In such a short time, Rey had captivated Ben so completely, it was rare that his mind gave him a spare moment of thought without her. He pulled out his phone and typed up a message:

Ben: Free today?

She responded quickly.

Rey: Yes

Rey: Are you going to show me your favorite spots in the city now? :P

Ben: I’d love to. I’ll meet you at your apartment?

Rey: Sure– I’ll be ready in half an hour


	14. Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben go on another date.

Ben met Rey outside her apartment building, where she came down to meet him in a short blue dress that threatened to be prettier than the yellow one he had seen her in less than a week before.

“Hello Ben,” she said with a dashing smile.

“Miss Rey,” he replied with the hint of a sardonic grin. “I like the blue.”

“Thanks. Seems you can barely keep away from me.”

“I suppose I can’t.”

“So, are you going to show me _your_ favorite places this time?”

“Sure.”

“Know any places for lunch?”

“Yes, this way.” He offered his hand to her, she took it.

He led her to a deli a few blocks away with a rather derelict exterior. The banner of the shop was faded, and the paint chipped, Rey could barely make out the name of the deli, _Brendol’s Deli_. “I know what you’re thinking but trust me.”

“Very convincing. Come.”

His ordering her so directly made her melt, and she let him lead her inside.

Ben greeted the husband and wife duo behind the counter with friendly familiarity, and they greeted him with the same enthusiasm. The couple were pale, both burly, and both with greying reddish-brown hair. On Ben’s recommendation, they each got a prosciutto sub with a homemade sundried tomato and basil dip spread, a gooey blue cheese, capers, spinach, and a drizzling of caramelized onion jam.

Then with their sandwiches, Ben led Rey to the park and they sat against his favorite tree to eat.

“Oh my _god_!” Rey said with a full mouth of food.

“I know!” Ben said, also with food in his mouth.

“It’s _so_ nice here. I should really come here more often.”

“I come here just about every day. Right here, in fact. This is my reading tree.”

“Oh, I can _so_ picture you reading here. Oh my _god_ this sandwich. I can’t believe it’s so close to me and I’ve never gone there.”

“To be fair, it looks like shit.”

Rey laughed, “It absolutely does! What on earth made you take a chance on that place? Like, the first time you went there.”

“The red-haired couple didn’t remind you of anyone we know?”

Rey thought for a moment, then realized what he was inferring, “Oh my god! Are they?!”

“Dom’s parents. Yeah. He took me there shortly after we met, and we went regularly when we were setting up to pitch the show. I mean, after my first sandwich I was hooked.”

“I think I might be too. This is freakin’ delicious.”

“I quite agree.”

A pleasantly silent moment passed between the two, which Ben broke. “So, Dom and I have been talking recently, about the future of the show.”

“Oh?”

“Essentially, we asked each other, ‘so, we found ghosts, now what?’”

“Well, yeah.”

“But, uh, we came up with some really interesting and exciting ideas, and Jackson loved them.”

“You've already pitched to Jackson?”

“I texted you straight out of it.”

“Wow, that's exciting, Ben!”

“Yeah... I just... I suppose I wanted to ask; provided we never, ever return to the Snoke House, ever, would you want to continue shooting the show with us?”

“I mean, it can't get worse, right?”

“Well, we certainly hope not.”

“I'll go where you go.”

Ben smiled at that.

When they finished their sandwiches, Ben took Rey to the library. “Now _this_ is my favorite place in the city. I come here damn near every day, pick a book, then go to that tree and read it.”

“And what do you like to read?”

“All sorts of things. Though, recently I’ve been trying to pick books that I think sound boring.”

“Why?”

“They usually surprise me.”

“What was the last book you read?” They walked through the shelves, scanning titles in the world history section.

“Well, when Dom and I met the other day to discuss the future of the show, I decided to do some research on the… the science of the supernatural. So, I found a book that was pretty much titled exactly that.”

“That doesn’t sound boring at all.”

“It’s certainly one of the more interesting sounding books I’ve read recently. Overall, I think the author was trying to legitimize his scientific field with decorative language, so it took a lot of wordy detours that weren’t particularly interesting. But there _were_ some interesting theories in there that I think we’ll try to bring into the show in an investigative capacity.”

Rey grinned at him. “You sound so formal.”

“Thank you?” He said with a funny smile.

“It's cute.” She stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

He smiled gently, a smile that came from his whole face; the twinkle in his dark eyes, the way his brow rested, the dimples in his cheeks. She could have kissed him all day when she saw that smile. “So, tell me about these boring books.”

“Oh, they _are_ boring. Boring sounding. Some actually fascinating, some not. It’s a gamble. The book I read before looking into the science of the supernatural was about the history of the American railway system.”

“That does sound _terrifically_ boring.”

“It was. There was some stuff about the Civil War that was… tolerable. But otherwise, very dry.”

“What’s the most interesting ‘boring’ book you’ve ever read?”

“I read a historical book about the East India Trading Company that was a page-turner. You know, the company was so powerful that by the end of their rule, almost all of India south of Delhi was more or less ruled from a boardroom in London.”

“That’s insane!”

“Yeah, it was a riveting read. I find most history books are quite interesting. There was another about the 12-day manhunt for John Wilkes Booth that I could not put down. I don’t think I ate or slept until I’d finished it!”

Rey laughed, “That’s terrible!”

“It was amazing. I finished it and felt like I’d woken up in a new world.”

“Seems like you’re a fast reader.”

“Yeah, I can pretty comfortably read a book every two days or so, if I’m not outrageously busy. Or working.”

“I wish I was a fast reader. I don’t read that much because I’m so slow, it feels like I barely make any progress whenever I try to get back into reading. I’ll spend weeks in the same section of the book, eventually I usually just give up.”

“You should try audiobooks, you can listen to them at double speed, means if you can squeeze in just half an hour every day, you’ll finish a book every week or so.”

“Maybe that’s what I need to do.”

“What do you like to read?”

“Oh, I don’t really know. It’s been ages since I’ve read anything.”

“Well, what do you think you’d like?”

“I can always do mystery stories. Or horror.”

“I’ll send you some recommendations?”

“Please do! I do want to get back into reading.”

Rey picked a book off the shelves, a collection of stories about Australian bushrangers. “This sounds interesting.”

“Let's borrow it.”

They borrowed the book and took it back to the tree, sitting underneath the shade and reading it together.

Rey still found the harmony between them strange. Not two weeks earlier, Ben was her annoying coworker who would occasionally snark a bit too hard. She could never have pictured being able to spend so much time alone with him, enjoying each other, trusting him, caring for him. _Letting him eat your pussy on your apartment rooftop_.

She didn't know what to make of how they had come together, and what's more was she couldn't help but think that if not for the terrors of the Snoke House, it's possible that they would never have progressed beyond snippy coworkers.

“What is it?” Ben had noticed Rey in deep thought as he was reading to her a passage on Ned Kelly's return to Beechworth.

Rey smiled and, by way of response, kissed him.

***

The studio session wasn’t much. Ben and Dom spent an hour in the audio booth discussing what the spirit box might have been saying, as well as debating the legitimacy of some ambiguous sounds that, according to Dom may have been monosyllabic whispers, and according to Ben may have been literally anything else.

Following that, the whole crew was in the studio filming the post-episode discussion, weighing the evidence and both Dom and Ben offering their final verdict on whether or not the Snoke House was haunted.

And with the first-ever matching final verdict on the side of ‘haunted’, season 3 of _Paranormal Investigations: Unsolved_ wrapped production, at which point, the four headed to a nearby bar.

“I can’t believe,” Rey said, raising her beer, “that we finally got one for you to both agree on.”

The four laughed. Ben butted in, “Well, this is the first time we’ve agreed a place is haunted. Though, there was that house last season that was just the most boring place we’ve ever been to. Literally nothing happened in that episode, we nearly got canceled.”

Rey laughed. Before the Snoke House, before she had let herself grow to like Ben, his comment would have grated on her, where now she hung to his every word. The bar had a folksy, indie-pop band playing, and the combination of the excitement of finishing the season, the groove of the song, and pounding the last of her beer encouraged Rey to get up from the bar and start dancing embarrassingly, staring at Ben with intent. Ben’s response was a raised eyebrow and a funny smile.

“What are you doing?”

“Dancing!”

Poe shrugged and got up from the bar, joining Rey’s embarrassing dancing. Dom and Ben looked at each other, chuckling at their co-workers. Dom started shuffling his shoulders to the beat.

“Dom, what are you doing?”

Dom shrugged and started dancing backward, joining Rey and Poe. Rey laughed at Ben; her cheeky grin was infectious. Ben shook his head, smiling playfully. Rey nodded, miming swinging a lasso and looping it around Ben. Ben laughed and shook his head again. Rey cocked her eyebrows. That did it.

Ben got up and shuffled towards the crew. The other three laughed and exclaimed “Yesss!!” in unison. He danced awkwardly, not quite hitting the beats in time, making Rey uncontrollably guffaw and keel over with laughter.

“I’m trying!” Ben said by way of defense, which only made Rey laugh harder.

Through dry, full-body laughs, Rey squeezed out with a high-pitched voice, “I’m gonna wee!” which only made Ben laugh with her.

Rey’s phone buzzed in her pocket, she pulled it out and checked it.

Finn: congrats on the wrap bestie!! xx

Rey quickly typed a reply,

Rey: You on a set tonight?

Finn: yeah– i’m on in 15

Rey looked at her coworkers and posed, “Anyone like clubbing?”

Poe raised his hand. Dom and Ben shared a bewildered look. Rey typed another message.

Rey: Not too loud this time pretty please?

Finn: you got it

***

Finn and Rey clearly had different definitions of what was “not too loud”, but after another round of drinks (or three) the volume wasn’t quite as bothersome. The crew continued dancing embarrassingly, working up a sweat in the packed, body-heated space. With each undulating beat, Rey found her body drifting closer and closer to Ben, until they were dancing right up against each other, feeling their clothes grinding with the friction of the other pressed against them. Their gleeful grins and giggles had long-since faded into an intense, magnetizing stare into each other’s eyes.

The pulsing beat began to slow gradually, washed over with white noise that increased in intensity into a robotic screech, and suddenly the beat dropped, with a bass that was overwhelming, slow but powerful and filthy. It was a beat that exuded lust; the clubbing equivalent of a slow-dance, though with the expectation of far more grinding than was considered typical of slow-dancing.

Rey and Ben’s eyes stayed locked on each other.

It occurred to Rey that this might not be a strictly professional distance, she stepped back, still continuing the dance.

Then, with their eyes still locked on each other’s gaze, they both felt something, a ripple through them that told them that something was wrong.

Ben glanced towards Dom, who hadn’t seemed to have noticed anything between him and Rey, which was good. Poe wasn’t with Dom. Ben gestured to get Dom’s attention and mouthed to him ‘ _Where’s Poe?_ ’. Dom put his hand to his ear, miming a phone call.

Ben looked back at Rey. They weren’t sure how, and they weren’t sure how they knew, but somehow their happily-ever-after was about to come crashing down. Ben stepped forward, closing the gap between them, and grabbed Rey’s arms. She nodded. They both knew that in this moment, the most important thing to do was to hold onto their happiness until this moment lapsed. Dance floor and Dom as witnesses be damned.

They kissed.

The moment was short-lived, but they would remember it as the end of the fuse that had lit itself the moment that they left the Snoke House, feeling as though they had emerged victorious.

For the truth was that the House was far from done with them.

***

“Poe Dameron?” The voice on the other end of the call was steely and female, and it sounded as though she was calling from a busy office, despite the late hour. Phone tones and chatter gargled through the background.

“Yes, who is this?”

“I got your number from Jackson Steele. I’m Gwendoline Phasma of the Elmwood Police Department. Is this a good time?”

“Um…” Poe’s heart galloped uncomfortably in his ribcage. “Yes, yes. What’s this about?”

“Well, it seems that you were among the last people to contact Luke Hamill.”

“What’s happened to Luke?! Is he okay?!”

“He’s missing.”


	15. Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following some troubling news, Rey and Ben act on their needs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS FIC WILL HAVE A HAPPY ENDING. INDULGENTLY SO. I PROMISE. WE ALL NEED IT.
> 
> NSFW warning!

When the call had ended, Poe stood on the street, unmoving, for longer than he knew. His mind swam with haunted memories, swirling through dark hallways that became endless, and frameless, and not hallways at all but vast fields of darkness. Time lost meaning. His feet ached, he didn’t know how far he’d walked or how much further he would have to walk. He was hungry and he didn’t know how long he had been hungry. He was thirsty and he didn’t know how long he had been thirsty. He would sleep and dream of the same darkness and wake up having lost whatever progress he had made, wandering through the dark. The air smelt earthy.

How long had he been there?

How long would he be there?

“Poe.” It was Dom. The crew had come out of the club and were standing with him. His mind was fractured, with one half of his consciousness on the street outside _The Resistance_ , the other half drifting through the Hallway. “Poe, what is it?”

Poe’s voice came out raspy, “Luke is missing.”

The information passed through Rey and Ben with a sensation like driving off a cliff. Rey gripped Ben’s shirt in her hand, as though it were the only thing to hold onto to stop herself from falling.

The four of them knew, with utter clarity, exactly where Luke was. And Rey knew that the police wouldn’t be able to find the Hallway to save him without their help. In fact, it was likely that the House had hidden the Hallway again and was waiting for their return to bait the hook, and Rey couldn’t help but bite. She hated it, but she couldn’t help it. She knew that there was a chance that she could save Luke, and she had to take that chance.

“I’m… I’m sorry guys,” Poe said, his voice still hoarse, “I- I can’t do any more tonight. I have to go home. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”

Dom stepped in, “No, hey, it’s okay. Go home. Be kind to yourself though, okay?”

“Yeah…”

Poe wandered away; his mind absent. Dom was pale. Moreso than usual. “I think I’m gonna head home too. You two stay safe.”

Dom walked in the opposite direction from Poe, leaving Ben and Rey alone on the street outside the club. They looked at each other. Rey spoke softly, “I… I know what I have to do. But I’m scared. I don’t think I’m strong enough.”

Ben took her hands gently, raised them up to his lips and kissed them with the delicacy with which one would sip from a China teacup, then looking at her eyes, said with heroic conviction, “You won’t be alone.”

Her breath was shaky and heavy. “We shouldn’t drive tonight, though.”

“No, we’re too drunk. We’ll go in the morning.”

“We’ll go in the morning.”

Rey let her head fall into his chest, his hand wrapped around and pulled gently on her hair. She didn’t know what the future would hold, or even if the future might cut off suddenly at her next encounter with the Snoke House. What she knew was what she wanted, what she needed right then, in that moment. She took Ben’s hand and said with a sudden smile, “Come on.”

***

Rey led Ben into the elevator of her apartment building and pressed her floor number. The bell dinged, the doors closed, and that was where she started giving in to her throbbing desire. She pulled him down into a ravishing kiss and he devoured her in return. His hand cupped her ass just right that she felt the support to drop her bag, jump up, and wrap her legs around him, which he accommodated with little exertion on his part.

With one circle of her hips, she felt his hard bulge under her black denim mini skirt, pressing against the center of her panties, where her need for him ached the most. She groaned against his lips at the feel of him _there_ , squeezing around him with her arms and circling her hips again, again feeling that jolt of pleasure that shocked through her whole body. She could feel herself wet for him, her body begging for him to fill her.

The bell dinged, she quickly jumped down from him as the doors opened. Thankfully, there was no one on the other side. Bending down to pick up her bag, she felt the waves of a slight drunkenness ripple through her. Enough that she could feel the fire, not enough to burn her. Rey led him to her door, fetched her keys from her bag, and unlocked the door to her apartment. She pushed him inside, took the keys out, and joined him in her home, flicking on the light-switch and shutting the door behind her. And now there was nothing in the way, no chance that someone might be watching, no risk of getting caught. There was only the two of them and what they needed.

Still standing just shy of the doorway, they kissed again, powerfully. Rey jumped up again, grinding desperate circles against his crotch. She felt him walking, and then her butt against a steady surface – her kitchen bench. His kisses trailed lustfully down her neck, tracing her collarbone, his hands were warmly caressing her torso under her shirt, teasing up to her breasts to meet his kisses on her chest.

She pushed his head away, pulled off her shirt and started to undo her bra (white, floral, simple). He crashed back into her with a kiss and swatted her hands away, whispering against her lips “I’ll do that” before devouring her all over again. She felt the comfortable snap of freedom from the bra coming undone and she slipped it off. He tore away from her mouth and sprinkled frantic, carnal kisses and nibbles all over her tits, centering in on and sucking lightly at her left nipple, then sucking a hickey onto the skin of her breast.

His hands slid under her skirt, which had ridden up considerably, and tugged her panties down her thighs. Ben took himself away from her tits and knelt down in front of her, pulling her light blue and wet panties past her knees, down to her ankles. She put her legs behind his head and felt his tongue press warm against her dripping cunt.

He lapped every inch of her pussy generously and tenderly, delicious sensation responding to every tiny movement of his talented tongue. She felt that tongue roll circles around her clit and it sent a loud moan from her, her head fell back in bliss. Her hand tangled in his raven hair, gripping tightly with every buzzing wave of delight that he sent quaking through her. “Fuck, Ben…” She whimpered, breath catching.

Her hips slowly shifted back and forth in time with his tongue, matching his movement, guiding him to just where she needed him— “Oh, f- _fuck_..” Another wave of deepening pleasure pulled her into an arousing trance. She’d never felt so aware of her body, of every part of it that could be activated just right to tip her over the edge of ecstasy.

As he flicked his tongue over her clit, again and again, Rey felt the warm pressure of an oncoming orgasm building in her, her hip movements getting more intense, building and building, the pressure rising, her cheeks flushing, her hand gripping, her breath catching, her core pushing, her legs tensing, and, and, and— “Ben, oh my _FUCK_ ing g _odd_ d—” All the pressure burst at once and a powerful orgasm rocked through her. The tension let go, his tongue slowed and pulled away. Both of them were panting.

He kissed her with his whole mouth, she could taste her own cum on his full lips, kissing him lazily and messily.

Rey slid off the kitchen bench and got on her knees in front of him, unbuckling his belt and undoing his fly. She pulled his grey jeans down with his navy-blue underwear, exposing his hard cock, which was exactly the size that she had dreamed it would be. Wasting no time, she wrapped her mouth around his dick and swirled her tongue around it, slowly bobbing her head back and forth. She looked up at him while she sucked his cock and the eye contact that he gave her shot another shiver between her thighs, which she instinctively met with her fingers, rubbing soft circles to the same rhythm as his cock in her mouth.

Her whimpers buzzed around his thick cock; she was overwhelmed by so much desire fulfilled, still feeling the aftermath of his beautiful mouth on her nipples and at her pussy, feeling her fingers rubbing her clit just right while feeling Ben’s dick on her tongue— “ _Fuck_ …”

His cock slid out of her mouth and the hand that wasn’t between her legs hit the ground to catch herself as another orgasm burst through her, consuming her whole body, rendering her limp and trembling, waves of overwhelming pleasure crashing again and again.

When her orgasm finished, she shakily got back on her knees, stumbling back towards Ben and grabbed him, using him for balance, and stroked his cock with the hand that had summoned her second orgasm. She looked up at him with pleading, submissive eyes and said gently, “Cum on me, please.”

She placed the head of his dick on her tongue and kept stroking, increasing her pace. She heard his breathing quickening, growing deeper, occasionally catching a low moan in the tide of his breath. His hand came to her cheek, resting there softly, and his breath caught, a delightful groan shuddering out of him as she felt his cum on her tongue. She closed her mouth and her eyes, smiling with lustful enthusiasm as she swallowed graciously; feeling his cum on her face and on her tits, where he’d marked her as his, earlier. She gingerly wiped cum away from the corner of her eye, which he’d thankfully avoided, and then opened them to look up at him, panting in the wake of his orgasm. She nuzzled her flushed cheek against his hand.

He smiled and raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘we just did that’. She giggled, another breathy moan slipped out of her, the quick succession of powerful orgasms rendering her near-deliriously brainfucked. She couldn’t believe how much pleasure Ben had given her without even having to fuck her. She couldn’t begin to imagine what he could do when he would.

***

Rey and Ben sat in her car. She turned the key in the ignition, felt the engine of her janky car sputter to life, the buzz of the car beneath her fingers at the wheel.

_A breath._

_A moment._

_Save this moment, hold onto it dear; this may be the end of your bliss, the point of no return._

_Savor every glimmer of light._

_Save the smell of the air, the sound of the world, the light of the morning sun._

_Oh, god, the look on his face…_

Under a false smile, Rey felt her heart sink. Ben smiled back, and she couldn’t tell how much he meant it. She turned to face forward. Parking brake off, gear shift into drive.

_No more delaying the inevitable._

Rey drove out of the carpark and they felt the road pull them back with the snake-like tendrils of the void, back towards the dreaded Snoke House.


	16. Caution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben return to the House to rescue Luke.

Yellow tape had been crossed over the front gate of the House, with words Rey wished she could heed. _Caution - Do Not Cross_.

Though logically true that she could still turn back, the notion of having to live with herself knowing that Luke was stuck in the Hallway and that they could help to find him would chew her up so devastatingly that turning back fell away as an option.

Rey slowed the car to a stop and Ben got out, without even stopping to plan he put his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. From the front door, Rey saw a police officer come out towards them.

She was tall, had short, blonde hair, and looked like she regularly popped watermelons with her thighs. The officer approached the gate. “Hello, can I help you?” She spoke with a kindly and dignified mid-western accent.

Ben spoke, “We’re Ben Solo and Rey Johnson, we were here just last week for _GossSpot’s_ _Paranormal Investigations_ series. We got your call last night and felt we should come assist with the House, where we could.”

“Oh, that’s awfully kind of you to offer but we have things under control here. Though, we’d like to keep you in the area, if we could possibly ask you some questions later?”

“Of course, we’ll answer any questions you have, but we were just wondering if you’d found the secret room?”

The officer was intrigued. “Secret room?”

“This House has some tricks to it. We were lucky enough to have Luke as a guide, which is why we decided to come offer our help in finding some of those tricks. Though, we appreciate that this is a crime scene, so, by all means tell us to leave.”

“No, uhm… Stay. We could use your help.”

The officer swung the gate open and stood aside for Rey to come through, and when Rey snapped back into her own brain, she was turning off the ignition and staring at the front door of the Snoke House, which she couldn’t help but feel was staring back.

The officer shook Ben’s hand, “I’m Officer Gwendoline Phasma. Thank you for coming in.”

And all too soon the door was opening, and Rey and Ben were being led back into the House.

The stale sight of police searching through the House, writing things in notepads, taking photos; it all struck Rey with one thought: _The House is being patient_. She wasn’t sure what had led her to that thought, but she knew that the House was waiting for her, that it wouldn’t reveal itself to these officers. A trap was being set, and they were walking straight into it.

They searched through the living room and found no new entry into the cursed Hallway. The wine cellar had been opened by the police, but all that was in there was wine. They opened up the passage to the secret room, but it, too, was bare. The dining room and the kitchen held no new secrets, though the painting over the dining room table no longer featured a wolf which was spooky but not helpful. The staircase had thirty-seven steps. The bedrooms were the same as they always had been.

Elizabeth’s studio, however…

“That door, I’m sure it wasn’t there before,” said Officer Phasma, indicating a black door.

Ben bobbed his head in a sarcastic nod, adding “Cool. Sick. Awesome.”

Rey sighed. “Then that’s where we need to go.”

They swung the door open and found nothing behind it, a vast nothingness that stretched further back than possible, that was darker than visible, and that was stiller than death.

“No one goes in there without a rope. Something tethered to the outside.” Rey said, trying to sound rational despite herself.

“What… the… fuck…” Gwen said, shining a torch into the vast void and watching the torch beam be swallowed by darkness.

Ben patted Gwen on the shoulder and spoke with subtlety, as though he were dropping a tissue in the bin, “Welcome to the Snoke House, Gwendoline Phasma.”

***

They crossed into the Hallway with safety gear suited to cave exploration – including mining helmets, as well as harnesses that were all connected to a rope that had been looped around a thick tree outside. They were also accompanied by three other officers – one white man with a brown moustache, one white woman with brunette hair that had been tied up in a loose bun, and one Latino woman with short, black hair – as well as Gwen. Rey and Ben still felt no more safety to when they had ventured into the Hallway without precautions or assistance of any measure. In fact, the only thing that was making them feel safer at all was being able to hold each other’s hand as they walked into the chasm of darkness, feeling the rope of their harnesses steadily pulling the further they ventured from the door.

Gwen called out, “Luke!” and the sound of her call absorbed itself dully into the void. The absence of any ambience was uncomfortable, oppressively silent. The atmosphere was dissonant with the Hallway so obviously being a cathedralic space that stretched out endlessly in all directions; the soundscape being that of a sound-proofed, glass box made it feel all the more wrong.

Rey felt her hand tugging slightly, she scurried to get closer to Ben.

“Luke Hamill! Are you in here?!”

Rey felt her hand tug again, she pulled herself into Ben, wrapping her arms around him. She whispered to him, “Something’s wrong. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Out in the dark, a figure came into view. Rey shone her torch at it, confirming that it was Luke.

“I’m here,” He called back with a croaky voice. “I’m here!!”

They walked towards him, the ropes steadily pulling. As they reached him, they pulled him into an instinctual embrace; an embrace of compassion more than affection. “How did you find me?”

Rey answered quickly, “Long story. We’re glad you’re safe.”

Suddenly, they felt the rope p u l l quickly, as though they were still moving away from the door. The officers all remarked their confusion, “What the hell?” said brunette bun.

“What’s going on with the rope?” said black hair.

“Steve? Is that you? You bastard - cut it out,” Said moustache.

The rope was taut. It couldn’t be pulled any tighter.

“Jesus, that’s 2 miles of rope!” brunette bun exclaimed.

Gwen spoke with authority, “Everyone stay calm, we just have to–”

The rope snapped. Towards them came stomping footsteps. Amongst the shadow, they saw the figure they belonged to, swinging an axe.

“Hello, my sweet doe. You brought friends!”

The officers all drew guns and fired at Ichabod. Loud pops of gunfire cracked through the still atmosphere of the Hallway, accompanied by the bright muzzle flares of the police offiers’ pistols and the burnt smell of gunsmoke. Ichabod fell fast and sudden, the axe dropping to the black ground. Gwen approached his seemingly motionless body, gun still fixed on him.

“Male of about 60. There’s blood on him, doesn’t look like his own.”

Luke spoke in awe, “That’s… That’s not possible.”

“It’s Ichabod Snoke,” Ben said, directly. “He’s probably come from… The night it happened.”

The officers looked at Ben.

He continued, “We don’t know how, but this House, especially this Hallway… Has strange properties. It defies time, space, physics, all known laws of reality are shattered here.” He pointed, “That’s Ichabod Snoke, the original owner of the House. He murdered his wife, Elizabeth. It’s likely that that blood is hers, and that from his perspective the murder just happened.”

Gwen felt Ichabod’s neck. “He’s dead.”

Moustache spoke, “What is going on here? Are you saying we’re back in time? That’s insane!”

Rey cut in, “No, we’re not ‘back in time’. This Hallway exists outside of time. Anyone from any point in the House’s history can show up here.”

Brunette bun shook her head, “Great, ‘cause that makes perfect fuckin’ sense. What the hell am I meant to write in this report?”

Black hair put her hand on brunette bun’s shoulder, “Eliza, we have to stay calm.”

Eliza took a deep breath, nodding gently. “I know. Sorry Louisa.”

Gwen rejoined the group and looked between at each of them as she spoke, “We’re gonna get out of here. All we have to do is make our way back to the rope. Now that can’t be very far, we know that… Ichabod was already fairly close to us with the axe when the rope snapped, so we know it can’t have happened too far down the line. Is everyone good?”

They all nodded.

“Okay. Good. Let’s go. Tom, I want you behind me.”

Moustache nodded, “Yes Gwen.”

“Louisa, Eliza, you two pull up the rear.”

The officers nodded, and spoke in unison, “Yes Gwen.”

“Alright. Let’s get the fuck out of this House.”

They got in formation and started to head back the way they came.

Rey turned to Ben as they walked, “I’m trying to understand something.”

“What?”

“Why has it brought us back? Does it just want to kill us? That doesn’t feel like enough of an answer.”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing. But I think we’ll never find the answer.”

“Maybe there is no answer. Or, not one we can ever understand.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

Eliza chimed in, “I still have no idea how I’m going to write this report.”

Tom spoke dryly, “If I were you, I’d drop all the supernatural stuff. Just say the dark Hallway led to a staircase that went down to some dark, secret basement. Something like that.”

“What, just lie?”

“You’d rather do a write up of the fuckin’ sci-fi dimension?”

“Dark basement. I definitely choose dark basement.”

Louisa spoke timidly to Rey, “How long does it go on?”

Rey shrugged and said, simply, “As long as the House wants.”

Eliza chuckled, “That actually is not comforting at all.”

Ben smirked, “Oh, trust me, we know.”

They continued through the darkness in silence for some time. Eventually, their torch lights found the rope.

“The rope!!” Gwen exclaimed, squatting down and picking it up.

“Thank god,” said Luisa. They quickly looped the rope back through their harnesses and were able to finally follow it back to the light of the door. Finally, they were able to leave the Hallway. And after some quick, final rounds of processing, Rey and Ben were back in the car, ready to leave the Snoke House behind them for good.

Rey’s hand paused at the keys in the ignition. She said softly, “I want to forget about the House.”

Ben reached over from the passenger seat and squeezed her knee, nodding, “Me too.”

She looked him in the eye, continuing, “No, I mean, I want to forget it. I want us to just… Can we just never talk about it again? Unless, like, y’know, it’s a work thing or a police thing? I just want to pretend it never happened. I just want to forget.”

“It’s okay. I understand. When you turn those keys, it’s done. We’re leaving it behind. Forever. And it’s just gonna be you and me. We’ll forget how we came together and just focus on moving forward. Sound good?”

“Yes,” Rey smiled, “Sounds perfect.”

She kissed him and he melted into her. The kiss felt like the turning of the final page in this chapter of their lives, and when they came apart and Rey turned the keys, striking the engine to life, they drove off into a shining sunset; a picture-perfect frame to announce to a watchful universe that this was the closing of the book.

***

“And I know that that’s what I said, but I can’t just… switch it off. I still feel like I’m missing something, something that would unlock all the answers.”

“The answers to what, exactly?”

“Why us? For what? It didn’t want to kill us, it let us go. Why? When I get in this loop of questions, I think some weird things.”

“Such as?”

“Like… I feel like maybe the House didn’t let us go. Like maybe everything since we stepped back through that door has just been an extension of the Hallway.”

“A simulation, you mean?”

“Yeah. I mean, I know how it sounds, don’t worry. I’m not about to… I dunno. ‘Test the simulation’ by doing something crazy. I’m happy with my life.”

“Good. That’s good.”

“And even if I wasn’t, y’know? There’s no point in… philosophizing that reality isn’t real. It leads to destructive behaviors, and I’m not about that.”

“It sounds like you’ve put in place some very healthy coping mechanisms.”

“Well, thank you Eve.”

“Which, I suppose creates another question–”

“Why did I come here? If I’m doing so well?”

The counsellor smiled kindly, the crinkles around her understanding brown eyes framing her dark face. “Stole the words right from me.”

“I just know that if I don’t talk to someone about it… I mean, I know that I’m exceptional at compartmentalizing. Bottling things up is bad, and I’ve learned that before, the hard way.”

“I admit, from what you’re telling me, I’m surprised you made the effort to come. And I mean that as a sincere congratulations for having the courage to reach out. Many wouldn’t.”

“My boyfriend’s been starting to worry about me. I was hoping that being able to get it out here would mean that I wouldn’t have to talk to him about it.”

“You know, he’s probably got the same questions as you, bouncing around, leaving bruises. He probably wants you to bring it up. Is there a reason you wouldn’t want to talk to him, beyond your promise that you wouldn’t talk about the House?”

“Oh, no, of course not. He’s a darling. Y’know, he’d probably have the perfect thing to say. Something that would immediately ease my worrying. You’re right. I should talk to him. Thank you, Eve.”

“No worries. I’m glad you came.”

“As am I.”

***

As she closed the door to her car, Rey looked at her phone, seeing a message from Ben.

Ben: Come over, I’m cooking fajitas.

Rey: Yummo! I’m coming! x


	17. Release

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the night of the episode release of the season finale of Investigations Unsolved: Paranormal, Rey and Ben seek release in another sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW warning. This chapter is about 50% fluff, 50% pure smut.

At his countertop, Ben sliced red onions into slivers with quick and precise expertise. “The episode goes up today,” he said without any bias in his tone and without breaking concentraction from slicing the onion. Rey was, in fact, very much aware that the season finale episode of GossSpot’s Paranormal Investigations: Unsolved was being uploaded to release at 7pm that night, and that it was currently 5:43pm. She had been counting down the weeks, then days, then, agonizingly, hours. It felt to her as though the moment the episode released was when it would all become real. The things that happened in that House.  
“Great.” She paused, uncertain.  
He noticed. “What is it?”  
“I, uhm. I just want you to know– Please don’t freak out. I saw a counsellor today. About the House.”  
He nodded, finishing the onion. He picked up the tips of the onion and tossed them into the compost bin, then looked at Rey, who was sitting on the countertop – a most inconvenient spot for Ben, as he’d pointed out. “That’s okay. I don’t mind if you don’t want to talk to me about it. But I’m glad you told me, about the counsellor.”  
She smiled at him. “Thank you. But I think maybe we should… go back on our promise. About not talking about it. Are you okay with that?”  
“Of course. Whatever you need.”  
“But what do you need?”  
He turned back to the stove, lightly tossing the spiced and sautéed capsicum and mushroom to move them around. “I would prefer to talk with you about it, rather than ignore it.”  
“Sorry. You should’ve told me.”  
“It’s fine. I would’ve said if it was a problem.”   
He turned back to the countertop and picked up the chopping board with the onion on it, then scraped the slivered onion from the chopping board into another oiled pan on the crowded stove, prompting a sizzling hiss and spreading the delicious smell of cooking onion throughout the kitchen, mingling with the spiced fragrance of the capsicum and mushroom.  
He grabbed the handle of the pan and started tossing the onions, getting them coated in the oil before setting the pan down and leaving it. “Did you want to talk about it now?”  
Rey looked at him, her brow furrowed. “No, not now. Later. Why not do all the vegies in one pan?”  
“Because I’m going to caramelize the onions with balsamic and brown sugar, which is a different flavor profile from the spice mix that I’m cooking the capsicum and mushroom in.”  
“But they’re all going to be in the tortillas together anyway.”  
“Yes, but that’s not how you cook them.”  
Rey’s brow did not unfurrow.  
Ben continued, “Because you want each part of the tortilla to have contrast.”  
“Ohhh, right. Okay, that makes sense.”  
As the onions started to soften and begin browning, Ben poured in some water, a dash of balsamic vinegar, and an equal amount of brown sugar, then started stirring with the wooden spoon, coating the onions in the brown, sticky glaze, then turning the heat down slightly.  
“Yuuum. That looks delicious. And it smells so fucking good.”  
Ben took the bowl of marinating steak strips out of the fridge and started laying them into the pan with the capsicum and mushroom.  
“Wait, isn’t that another flavour profile?”  
Ben smiled, “No, because the steak was marinating in a similar spice mix, and the juices that’ll cook out of the steak will mingle with the juices of the vegetables.”  
“Oh my god, my mouth will not stop watering! When we’re done eating, I want you to fuck me in this kitchen.”  
“Once I’ve dealt with the dishes.”  
“Fuck you, you sexy bitch. Cooking for me and shit. Romantic as fuck.”  
Ben chortled, passing her the wooden spoon, on which he’d left a small sampling of the caramelized onions, saying, simply, “Taste.”  
Rey lowered her mouth down to the spoon and closed her lips around the end of it. The sweetness and tanginess sparkled around her mouth.  
“Yum! Oh my god.”  
Ben took the spoon back and tasted the onions himself, then sprinkled some salt over them.  
“Just let me suck your cock. Just a bit. Little a cock, as a treat.”   
“You’re so distastefully vulgar. And you know I’m not letting you suck my dick until I’ve eaten your pussy. The score is not even. You’re on probation.”  
“Blow-bation.”  
He grinned at her, speaking through a chuckle, “Stop trying to seduce me, I’m cooking.”  
She grinned in return, “Yes sir.”  
He pointed at her sardonically, wooden spoon in hand.  
She smirked, “Are you going to spank me with that?”  
“I might.”  
“Leave a mark.”  
“Later. Cooking.” He turned back to the pan, laying the wooden spoon down, picking up tongs and flipping the steak strips, tossing the capsicum and mushroom.  
“I hate you. I’m hangry. And horny. Horngry.”  
“I hadn’t noticed.”  
“I think my period’s tomorrow.”  
“Guess we’ve got a deadline. Fuck– stop it! I’m cooking.”  
Rey giggled.

***

Ben's tortillas were the most delicious thing Rey had ever tasted. She ate them sloppily, taking huge bites that left the mingling juices of caramelized onion, spiced and sauteed capsicum and mushroom, lime juice flavored with the cilantro of the pico de gallo he had also made fresh, all dripping down her chin and fingers. Even once she finished, she picked remaining pieces of steak or capsicum from the bowls on the table and snacked on them indulgently. She suddenly became aware of Ben looking at her, grinning wide with such bliss and fulfillment. She grinned back at him. “That was literally the best food I've ever eaten--"  
He cut her off, “I love you.”  
Well, that’s new. Rey felt herself melt with joy. “I love you too.”  
Their words hung in the air for a moment of peace and happiness, before Rey spoke quickly. “I really want to kiss you but I'm an absolute mess of tortilla juice.”  
“Go have a shower. I'll do the dishes.”  
“Noooo that's not fair, you cooked.”  
“When you come back out, I'll fulfill your earlier request. And I'm going to put you back in that inconvenient spot on the countertop and eat your pussy until you feel the debt has been repaid.”  
“Fuck you, romantic bitch.”  
“Go shower.”  
“No. You go shower. You cooked. I refuse to let you clean up. I mean it.”  
Ben raised his eyebrows and the corner of his mouth raised, the hint of that smirk she loved to hate and hated to love. “Yes, ma'am.”  
Ben got up from the table, picking up his plate and stacking it on top of Rey's.  
“Stop that!” Rey snatched the plates. “Go! Begone!” She pointed at the bathroom with a grin. “And!” He looked back at her, she pointed at him now. “If you come out wearing more than a towel, Mr. Solo. You'll be in a world of hell.”  
“Yes ma'am.” He swallowed thoughtfully, choosing words, then continued with that delicious smirk. “I see you're in charge tonight.”  
“That's right.”  
“I'm gonna shower now.”  
“Good.”  
“I love you.”  
Rey smiled with sincerity. “I love you too.”  
He walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind him, leaving Rey sitting at the table. She picked up the plates and took them to the sink, leaving there while she washed her hands quickly, then opened the dishwasher. Rey made quick work of unstacking the clean dishes and then reloading it with the dirty ones, as well as the pans from dinner. She put the dishwasher on and at the exact same moment, from the bathroom, the shower ceased. Rey propped herself up onto the countertop, sitting back in the same spot as earlier, swinging her legs playfully. She was ready to fuck her boyfriend. Memories of all the best times that he’d touched her in the last 3 months shivered across her body.

One time they had gone to see a movie and found the cinema not particularly full. They were sat right up the back and were the only people in their row. He had started the film with his hand planted at her knee, and as the movie dragged on (it turned out to be much wankier than the trailers had led on) he moved his hand up her leg at an excruciatingly slow pace, drinking in the pleading looks she would fire at him as his fingers closed in on her inner thigh.

Rey was tracing random swirly patterns on her thigh, slipping playfully under her black denim skirt whenever the pattern dictated.

One day, after a hectic shoot for GossSpot’s cooking channel, Rey had come back to her apartment and invited Ben over to share a bottle of wine and watch shit TV, but she ended up venting to Ben while he gave her a slow, sensual massage. Every time he would move onto another area of her body, he would slowly remove the piece of clothing that covered it, inch by inch, and when he finished an area, he would sprinkle her bare skin with hot, tender kisses.  
Her speech began to slow and slur with relaxation and wine, words drifting into low moans as he kneaded a spot right under her shoulderblade that made her toes curl to feel the knot of stress just melt away. He kissed the spot when he had finished with it, then looped his fingers underneath the waistband of her jeans and circled his fingers from her hips around to the front of her pants, undoing the fly and gently tugging them down Rey’s legs, to no resistance from her.  
With her jeans removed, he worked his way slowly up her legs, Rey teasing them further apart to grant him permission the further up he got. When he finally reached that ached the most for his touch, he had indulged her deliciously.

Arousal pooled between her legs. Rey heard Ben’s footsteps coming from the bathroom and glimpsed his wide, pale figure as he walked towards the kitchen, his pecs sparkling from the shower, only wearing a white towel, wrapped around his legs, an obvious tent poking out the front of it.  
“Hello.”  
“Hello. How was your shower?”  
“Delightful, but lonely.” He didn’t slow his approach even as he reached her, in one quick motion dropping the towel and grabbing her fiercely, kissing her with power. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him into her, tightly, feeling his erection poking under her skirt. She moaned into his lips, he groaned in response, grinding against her.  
Pulling away from the kiss she gripped his wet, raven hair tightly, putting her lips to his ear and whispering with a whine, “I need you.”  
He whispered back, a low growl, “What do you need?”  
“Your tongue, please.”  
“Good girl.”  
He nibbled down her neck, she hissed at the sensation. He got down on his knees, the countertop putting Rey’s pussy at the perfect height for him. His huge, soft lips traced gentle kisses up her right thigh – the same place she had been swirling her fingers in anticipation. Each hot kiss sent shivers down her spine that ended with an ache of emptiness that begged to be filled. Those plump lips landed at the place that ached for them and he planted a sloppy kiss over her wet panties, pulling a sigh from her as she propped her legs over his broad shoulders. He hooked his fingers into the white underwear and pulled them down, leaving them taut between her knees and placing his head back between her thighs.  
With the welcome heat of his tongue, warmth travelled up the slick length of her slit. Looking down, she watched his head bobbing slowly, feeling his tongue fucking her. His dark eyes met hers over the edge of her skirt and a loud whine escaped her lips. She threw her head back and grabbed her tits with one hand, her other tangling fingers in his wet, jet black hair. His enthusiasm increased with her encouragement, a low growl humming into her cunt that sent heat radiating through her.  
That magic tongue, oh how she loved it. And that intense stare still burning towards her, even when she was too overwhelmed by pleasure to meet it, when she could bear to steal a glance at him those dark chocolate eyes held hot on her own. She whimpered, and moaned when she was able to catch her breath enough to speak, “Fucking hell, I love you. Ben Solo I love you.”  
She felt his tongue move in a strange pattern that threw her off her rhythm slightly, though it only drove her further into her sexual frenzy. Deciphering the movements of his tongue, she finally realized what he was doing: A line straight down. Then a slight curve downwards, then a curve downwards in the other direction. Then a straight line down, curve at the bottom, straight line back up. Then a curly zig-zag from top to bottom. She chuckled, though it became another moan. ‘|-♡-U-2’.  
She playfully smacked his shoulder, lightly. He laughed, sending the low vibrating hums of his baritone voice shivering through her pussy again. She could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentines Day! 💗


	18. Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One year later, Rey tells Finn a recent realization she's come to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW warning: smut. Smutty smut.

Finn looked at Rey with a funny smile. “You’re in a good mood today.”  
Rey, grinning, raised her eyebrows at him – ‘oh?’.  
“You haven’t stopped smiling since I saw you. Spill it. What’s got you so happy today?”  
He was right. Where usually Rey’s resting face would err on the side of neutral to ‘look at me and you’ll burn’, today it had consistently relaxed itself to a satisfied grin.  
Her smile blossomed wider, and she spoke through it with the sweetest, happiest tone like a songbird in spring, “I’m going to marry him, Finn.”  
Finn leaned all the way forward over the deli table, his eyes as wide as saucers. “Did he propose?!”  
“No, but I just know.”  
“Oh my god,” he leaned back and exhaled, “I thought for a second you got engaged and didn’t tell me. What do you mean you ‘just know’?”  
Behind Rey’s unwavering smile was the endless looping memory of the previous night.

***

They had hosted a game night at their apartment with Finn and Rose, and Dom and Poe. They played Articulate, a game which Poe had described as “the whitest game ever made”, citing the fact that it was essentially Trivial Pursuit and Charades' bastard lovechild. They drank red wine from a Tasmanian vineyard which Ben had bought specially for the night. It was Ben and Rey's turn, with Rey having to describe the words for Ben to guess in the “Nature” category.  
The timer started.  
“It's a type of fish!”  
“Trout.”  
Rey burst out laughing, nodding as her face turned red from both hysterical laughter and wine. The rest of the table burst out laughing too at the immediacy of Ben's answer despite a total lack of real context. No one could believe that he had guessed it that quickly from that clue alone.  
Dom had joked, “How did you guess that?? Did you read her mind??”  
Rey and Ben tried to compose themselves as she was struggling to switch to the next card. She bit her lip, trying to hold another fit of hysterical laughter.  
“Bumpy horse.”  
“Camel.”  
Rey lost it. The table followed, all guffawing, everyone losing breath, turning beet red and yelling some choice of “HOW IN THE FUCK”.

***

Finn chuckled. “Bumpy horse. Was that it? Was that the moment?”  
Rey's unquitting smile beamed. “Not yet.”

***

After everyone left, it was approaching midnight. Rey and Ben looked at each other once the door closed, sharing a peaceful smile. After a beat, Rey stepped up onto her tippy-toes and bounced up to kiss his cheek. Ben's peaceful smile turned into a radiant grin of loving bliss. His eyes twinkled with certain adoration.  
The Tasmanian wine suddenly popped into Rey's head and she abruptly shattered the tender moment between them by blurting out, “That wine was absolutely delicious.”  
His smile softened. He walked to the kitchen. “I’m glad you liked it.” Opening the pantry and reaching up, he pulled down another bottle.  
“You didn't!! You got two? You knew that I would want more once everyone had left, didn't you?”  
“Rey Johnson, my sweetheart, do you know me at all? I got three.”  
He untwisted the cap and poured them each a tall glass. She skipped over to him and wrapped her arms around him from behind, nuzzling her head into his broad back, smelling his musk.  
She spoke softly, “I'm going to put my pyjamas on, then I'm going to come out and watch TV with this lovely wine. Would you like to join me?”  
“I'd love nothing more.”

Rey came out of the bedroom in her short Beauty and the Beast pyjama set. She was deliberately wearing no form of underwear underneath, hopeful that wine would lead to other things. Rey watched her boyfriend eye her up and down, and smile at her presence. Sitting next to him on the couch, the petite girl snuggled up to the massive man. He handed her her wine, they clinked glasses and both took a delicious, rich gulp. Ben pressed play on Tangled: The Series, which he'd cued up while Rey was getting changed; he knew exactly what she had wanted to watch.  
In the title sequence he spoke, barely above a murmur, “Did you ask about next month?  
“Oh, yeah. They said it’s all good.”  
“Good. Good.”  
Ben's mother's 60th birthday was coming up and had invited her and Ben to California to go out to dinner and celebrate. And because it was a bit of a hike to get there, they had decided to extend their trip by a few days and make a bit of a holiday out of it. Nothing too big, just staying with Ben's mom, maybe seeing the Hollywood sign. Really just an excuse to take a few days out of work and have some exquisite hotel sex, which she couldn't complain about at all.  
He continued, “I've written up an itinerary of our trip, would you like to see it?”  
Rey grinned. “You're such a planner. Go on then.”  
Ben motioned to stand, Rey let go of him and let him up. He walked to the bedroom, Rey paused the TV and sat up, sipping her wine again. Ben came out, holding a blue binder.  
God, I love him so much. A week-long trip of humble sight-seeing and he'd made a binder?  
He put the binder in her lap, his face wearing an expression she recognised as him hiding a smile.  
Something's up.  
“What is it?”  
“Open it.”  
She opened it.  
A blank page.  
“It's just a blank page.”  
“Huh, that's weird. Is there something on the other side?”  
Rey turned the page. It was still blank, as was the next page across. She smiled at him. “Have you handed me a blank binder?”  
“Keep turning the pages, I'm sure I had the itinerary in there.” He furrowed his brow in confusion, but Rey could tell that he was putting on an act as a smile threatened to break through his dry facade.  
She turned the pages again and again, chuckling more and more with each flip of the plastic-pocketed paper. Finally, she reached the last page, which said, simply:  
We're going to Disneyland.  
That's when the facade cracked away and the smile broke through on Ben's face. “Surprise!”  
Rey looked at him, her eyes wide as dinner plates, expression otherwise blank with shock. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn't find any words, making stuttering sounds instead. Tears stung in her eyes. Ben chortled.  
A grin broke out on her face and tears instantly rolled down her cheeks. She made a string of incoherent vocal noises shaking with her gleeful weeping. Ben wrapped her into a safe and strong embrace and she continued crying into his shoulder.

Throughout her largely woeful childhood, Rey had found comfort and escape in the magic of fairytales and happily-ever-afters. Disney movies had shaped her since before she could even understand them. As she had approached adulthood, she reluctantly came to terms with the idea that she might never go to the Magic Kingdom, or that if she did it might take her decades to save the money to go. It was a far-off dream, possibly as far as unattainable.

And this man had just handed it to her as a gift, as a surprise. A month away. She was a month away from walking into Disneyland.

“Are you happy, sweetheart? Are these happy tears?”  
She nodded, still unable to form words.  
“Thank god.”  
Rey laughed between heaving breaths. She tried again to speak, her involuntary heaves interrupting her “I – love – you – so – much.”  
“I love you too.”  
“It's – too – much – it's – too – much...”  
“No, my love. I promise, it isn't.”  
“Money—”  
“I’m a good saver. Trust me, I had enough put aside for this.”  
Rey couldn't think of anything else she could say. “Thank – you.”  
“Anything for you.”

*** 

“Disneyland?!”  
“I know!! I'm going to marry him, Finn. I can't believe how sweet he is, I just can't. Honestly, even before this I just... I love him. So much. So much it hurts.”  
Finn smiled gently. “It makes me happy to see you this happy.”  
Rey smiled back at her friend. The moment was sweet and quite innocent, but in her head she was playing the events that followed, which were anything but.

***

  
When she finally forced herself to stop crying and the spasmic breaths subsided, she pulled out of the embrace and kissed him heavily, her tear-stained face wetting his. She kissed him hungrily, passionately. Filled not with lust but with love, pure and warm. Quiet, but also loud. Intimate, but also epic. Desperate.  
She climbed onto him, straddling him. She parted her lips and licked his, welcoming his tongue into her mouth. She gripped his hair, bundling bunches of it tight in her hand, the other gripping his shirt with the same intensity. She rocked her hips back and forth, feeling the ache of arousal stirring in her, burning with wet emptiness.  
In the rhythm of grinding into him, she had found the perfect alignment of his hard bulge pressing on her throbbing entrance. Rey whimpered hot against his lips and increased the pace of her gentle rocking, which then turned rough, and all too quickly she was moaning and sighing and humping his hard crotch to the build of an orgasm, and Ben's growling whisper cut at her as he gripped her hair and told her “Cum for me.” Her hips shook and her core buckled as she felt the warmth of her fast orgasm fill her, her choking whimpers hot in Ben's ear. He whispered, “Good girl.”  
She climbed off of him and immediately rushed her shaking hands to his belt and fly, then pulling down his pants and exposing his hard dick, the moment it was out in the open it was engulfed by her lips.  
Ben moaned for her, a high moan that had a touch of vulnerability to it. It sent a shiver down Rey's spine. He looked at her, their gazes meeting like stars colliding, another groan from him as she swirled her tongue around the tip of his dick. Ben forced himself to speak breathlessly, “You know that I’m not just taking you to Disneyland for a blowjob, right?”  
She popped her lips off the tip and said quickly “Shut up. I want to,” then put her lips back down, taking the shaft almost to the base, prompting another moan. Pulling her damp pyjama shorts to the side, she rubbed her wet clit as she played with Ben's cock in her mouth, loving every noise he made. She knew what it felt like to have his moans buzzing against her pussy, the mere thought of making him feel the same pleasure pulled a long moan from her, which granted her a delightful, satisfied growl from him, ending in her name from those plump, princely lips. “Rey.”  
Hearing her name spoken like that made her quiver.  
“Get on the couch and flip around. Let me taste you.”  
She obeyed him. He laid down more horizontally, she climbed onto him and straddled his face. He pulled her pyjama shorts to the side and pushed his thick middle finger into her, gently raising his hot tongue to her clit. She moaned loud for that, a moan that ended in a whimper of his name, “Ben.”  
He fucked his finger in and out of her, lapped tenderly at her clit, overwhelming her with sensation as she lazily tried to put her mouth on his dick. Her hips moved involuntarily, riding his finger and tongue. She couldn't concentrate on sucking him off anymore, just leaving her mouth on him and whining loudly as he pleasured her, her hips moving at their own rhythm, increasing in speed and intensity as her pleasure built in her. And suddenly another orgasm crashed through her, whimpering on his dick just as he began to cum for her, too. She eagerly swallowed every drop of him.

They lay on each other in the satisfactory silent after-waves of their orgasms for some time before Rey flipped back around and brought her face to his. He kissed her only until they both grew too tired to possibly keep kissing, then they dragged themselves to the bed and dozed off, dreaming sweetly of the boundless bliss they had gifted each other.


End file.
